-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
When EMS Companies Put Customers in the Driver's Seat, Get Out of the Way
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Pamela Wiseman, sr. operations/supply chain consultant, Technology Forecasters Inc. (TFI), says that it’s typical during challenging economic times for corporate executives to focus internally — especially on costs and cash. She argues that the best survival strategy is to put the customer at the forefront instead, with increased attention on retaining and catering to customers.
Many executives subscribe to a survival plan mandating full attention to internal metrics, to the extent that they are more willing to play tug-of-war with customers to cut inventory, slow payments to suppliers, and protect cash. Plus, the executives find it more difficult than usual to predict customers’ moves, so they focus on the internal metrics they can control. This is the way to survive, right? Wrong answer. Putting the customer at the forefront and satisfying their requirements should never take the backseat to singular attention on internal operational metrics. The latter is surely the path to decline and gives an advantage to competitors who keep a steady eye on pleasing the customer. Read More Industry Analysts on EMS/OEM Relationships.In the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) business especially, it’s important to reflect regularly on the fact customers are never 100% dependent on your services. Having managed outsourced manufacturing for electronics companies for 9 years, and now managing TFI Customer Retention for Business Growth programs, I have seen first hand the end result of EMS companies who were inwardly focused. When dissatisfied, the customer can switch to another EMS or even bring the manufacturing back under their direct control in-house. The only reason customers use the suppliers’ services is to add more value than they can produce internally. If suppliers do not proactively view customers’ operational challenges as their own, the suppliers get off track and miss key intelligence that will benefit their own bottom line. I advise EMS clients to take a look at how they are working with customers. Are they proactively collecting and analyzing quality data? Continually looking for purchased-part cost reductions and sharing benefit? Suggesting design and process changes to reduce cost? Reinventing themselves to deliver more value to customers? Or, instead, are the suppliers causing customers pain with parts shortages, average or worse-than-average costs on materials, delivery snafus, poor inventory management, and other sub-par results? Of course, the EMS needs to make a profit, but if they are truly adding value, the profits and increased market share will follow. Continue reading Wiseman’s advice for aligning EMS and customer goals for profitability and satisfaction: http://www.techforecasters.com/weblog/archives/when-ems-companies-put-customers-in-the-drivers-seat-get-out-of-the-way/