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The Elcoteq EMS Cocktail
Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies are involved with the whole life-cycle of a product from design to after market services. An easy way to understand what this means is to compare it to making drinks for a party.
The first step is to find a good recipe. To the EMS, that means product development. Much research, experimentation, and testing are involved to find the drink, or product design, that will be most palatable to a company’s customers and potential customers and that will be most profitable.
After you or the customer has chosen the recipe, the next step is to determine what ingredients are needed and where to get them. You have to think about alternatives in case a specific required ingredients, or if they are not available or you need more ingredients than anticipated. When you find the best ingredients, you select the suppliers to provide these ingredients and negotiate the price. In the EMS world, it’s called sourcing and supply chain management.
Now the preparation begins. You test the recipe and tweak the preparation until you get it just right. Do you need to add a little more or less of an ingredient? Is there a better way to mix the ingredients? Can you easily make and serve more than one drink? What tools or appliances work the best? How should you serve the drinks? For the EMS, preparation takes place in the New Product Introduction (NPI) phase. Many large EMS companies have NPI centers near their customers so they can work together to perfect the product and get it ready for volume manufacture.
When you are satisfied you know exactly how you want to make the drinks, it’s time to buy enough ingredients to make them. Arrangements must be made to get the agreements, whether they are coming from a local supplier or are imported. How long will it take to get them? What form of transportation will be necessary? What expenses will you incur? How do you handle your own storage? Inbound logistics is the term used by the EMS to describe handling of the details to get the ingredients needed to start the final preparation and the inventory management of the ingredients on stock.
Once you have all the ingredients and tools, it’s time to mix the drinks. That’s manufacturing!
The drinks are ready. Where are your guests and how will you serve them the drinks? Outbound logistics finalizes the details to ensure that the product is delivered to the customer on time, in perfect condition, in a cost effective way.
Finally it’s time to relax and watch your guests enjoy the drinks. But even then, the process isn’t totally complete. There are after market services to make sure that the drinks were just right, to see if anyone wants a refill, or if some guests want something extra with their drinks. A good EMS company has a range of after market services to make sure that everything went as planned, to provide warranty and repair service and to provide feedback so the next product, or drink, is even better than the first.
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Topics:
Electronics Manufacturing Services, IEMS, Manufacturing services, Total Cost of Ownership
