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Flexible Manufacturing: An Interview with Jabil Circuit Inc.
November 5, 2014 | Richard Ayes, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
John Dulchinos, Jabil Circuit’s vice president of global automation, talks to I-Connect007 editor Richard Ayes about the electronics manufacturing landscape, the latest trends and developments, the EMS industry's need for manufacturing automation, and how the U.S. may become successful in its reshoring activities.
Richard Ayes: What can you say about the current state of the electronics manufacturing industry, and what are the opportunities for growth?
John Dulchinos: Let me start by saying it is a great time to be in electronics. I think this is a period of unprecedented opportunity, largely driven by the fact that everything's getting smaller and smarter, and that it is so easy today to put electronics into devices that used to be passive. With miniaturization, battery technology getting better, with the low power electronics, wireless communications--all of these things are driving the opportunity to really go down into a new generation of devices. I am sure you've heard of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a catchphrase, but there is really truth in the fact that everything's going to be connected in the future. Given that, devices that used to be passive are going to be devices now that have some sort of active components in them.
So I think it is a tremendous opportunity for anybody who is in the electronics manufacturing industry to see continued, bright opportunities going forward.
Ayes: From a manufacturing standpoint, what are the challenges being faced by companies?
Dulchinos: The challenges are not different per se; they just continue to be refined and they continue to extend the trend that's been going on for a number of years. One of the biggest challenges is the short product lifecycles--the rapid ramps. What we see today in certain segment of the electronics industry is the very short product lives. One-year, two-year product lives. What's a little bit different is the model now where the maximum volume happens during product launch, and then there's kind of a long-term decay from there.
It used to be the traditional product ramp where you have an exponential curve that starts low and builds up. Today, the way certain sectors of our business operate, the highest volume is day one, when you launch the product, and then over the next one to two years, it is a kind of steady decay for that product because it's matured.
Read the full article here.Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the October 2014 issue of SMT Magazine.