VentureOutsource.com began surveying the contract electronics sector (OEMs and EMS/ODM providers) more than a decade ago. Our Electronics Solutions Provider Survey Ratings are published in response to a wide variety of queries from electronics OEM professionals asking us who is the best provider. Read our history of VentureOutsource (VO) Stars and our rating and ranking companies.
Given the vast number of providers worldwide and the challenge most contract electronics providers face differentiating their company/services and specific facility locations from competitors in a same given area/region serving similar end markets, we reached out to electronics EMS providers around the world under consideration requesting information about their specific company, as well as their perspective regarding which EMS providers/provider facilities, excluding their company, they considered to be most impressive.
Since provider capabilities and management execution can differ among factories in the same provider organization and, geography is important to most electronics OEMs, some provider facility locations have a distinct advantage over other factories and geographies. For example, in terms of manufacturing location in proximity to a technical workforce or base of consumption or, some factories have better program management teams and, management teams in specific factories will execute much better than other management teams working for the same electronics solutions provider but assigned to a different factory.
Just because a solutions provider might be larger and has more factories and engineers or, they might have more revenue than other, smaller providers does not mean larger providers offer higher quality services or they can execute faster.
Tier-1 and -2 providers also have poor-performing factories and, because electronics solutions firms employees often change locations (and companies) within industry, who better than to survey – asking them about which provider factories they feel are best.
Also, a low-mix, high-volume consumer electronics product might be better if production occurs in Thailand, Malaysia, India or China than the US or Mexico. Does this mean you must only consider providers in Asia? Absolutely not. But providers located in certain cities or regions offer real advantages that are less available elsewhere.
In the end, our goal is to give OEMs access to ample information on VentureOutsource.com so they can make more informed decisions about contract electronics service providers they choose to ultimately formulate business partnerships.
The criteria we used in making our lists of EMS providers by industry reputation consists, in no particular order, of the following:
- Depth and scope of management
- Available technology
- Manufacturing quality and factory cleanliness
- Responsiveness to changes in industry
- Value as it relates to pricing
- Number of customer reviews
- Providers also have to respond to every negative review they had ever received on VentureOutsource.com
During the survey, the more often a provider company’s name and that facility location was mentioned by industry peers (respondents employed by other EMS providers) the higher that provider facility ranked. Where we could not obtain information directly from a provider, we obtained the necessary information from the provider’s Website or from other reputable publications.
Like any survey or list, ours is not perfect and is open for debate. There is no single opinion that trumps all when it comes to which provider is the “best”. Ultimately every electronics OEM decision maker has different needs and views regarding electronics contract manufacturer management expertise and corporate culture, provider execution, technical capabilities, as well as costs. Our hope is that our lists are a starting point for OEMs to discover providers that are the best fit for them and that any list is not to be used as a deciding factor.
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