Primary concerns facing many electronics manufacturer brand companies tasked with sourcing contract electronics services focus on contract electronics sourcing cost containment, optimizing electronics manufacturing services (EMS) service level agreements (SLA), and better EMS supplier performance.
Below are several questions electronics OEM decision makers might consider:
- How does your company verify contract electronics manufacturing suppliers are not using inaccurate, or incomplete, internal operating input costs when calculating quote pricing of services and fees for your outsourcing program?
- How is inventory exposure determined – on BOM line-item basis – at any given point in your customer program production workflows (from receiving allocation, to warehouse, to kitting, to WIP, to FGI) for any given board or sub-assembly or final assembly level in your customer program and program family?
- What processes and procedures are in place internal contract manufacturing facilities to effectively manage indirect labor staffing responsible for accuracy, timeliness, and productivity execution for OEM customer sales and operations planning (S&OP) tied to OEM customer program when customers issue POs and work orders for implementation?
- To what extent do the contract electronics solutions providers you are working with, or considering, compensate for weaknesses in your own organization, and to what extent would the solutions provider(s) be willing to work with you where your outsourcing programs may not be ready for sourcing some aspects such as test equipment, developing test scripts, fulfillment, repair and reverse logistics?
- How are you addressing currency exposure against raw materials, WIP, and FGI against different geographies in your contract electronics sourcing agreements?
- What processes and procedures can you implement to identify gaps in your supplier management tools, systems and metrics so you can more clearly track and communicate individual outsourcing program progress of key metrics, and obstacles, against supplier performance?
Want more?
A list of 19 questions for better contract electronics sourcing strategy and EMS manufacturing supplier development can be requested here.
