Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) refers to companies or an entire industry that provides value-added manufacturing and engineering services to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). It is often used with the terms Contract Manufacturing Services (CMS) or Contract Electronics Manufacturing (CEM). Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies provide a wide range of services in different areas including services spanning manufacturing industries, government, and health care to consumers. Manufacturing and accompanying services, like supply chain management, engineering, and product management support, along with after-sales support.
This service is designed particularly to support OEM, the services of EMS providers allow manufacturers to focus on their core business, i.e., product research and development, also sales, and marketing of their devices. EMS manufacturers provide knowledge and management services, such as material management, logistics transportation, and even product maintenance services.
The Features of Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS)
Electronic manufacturing services manufacturers offer so many services in particular:
Engineering Support
Electronics manufacturing service manufacturers maintain experts in product management production processes and testing. That is why the electronics manufacturing services are able to provide custom product management support within the whole product life cycle, including BOM and revision management, ECO management, as well as component engineering, and other related capabilities.
Moreover, a good electronic manufacturing service manufacturer is a company that is able to offer design for manufacturability (DfM) or design for test (DfT) services.
New Product Introduction
New Product Introduction (NPI) is considered one of the most necessary processes in electronic manufacturing services. An Electronic Manufacturing Services manufacturer will go through an in-depth evaluation and quality control of the new product before it’s implemented in mass production. This process involves an excessively complicated study of the potential risks during the production (P-FMEA evaluation), all program preparation, also trial production, and material verification (like RLCD measurements). Such a procedure also takes into account the electronic product design, build, and preparation of all necessary product-specific tooling (like stencils, soldering frames) or jigs (poka-yoke).
Product Testing
After the components have been produced, electronic manufacturing services manufacturers will comprehensively test them to ensure that they can perfectly function and perform. Testing the functionality and performance of the product is a key process to ensure that only fully operational devices end up at the final customer.
Supply chain management
Electronic manufacturing services manufacturers specialize in securing raw materials and pooling together resources, that is why they are able to outsource components from different parts of the globe to ensure they surpass the expectations of their OEMs’ needs that subcontract them.
Electronic manufacturing services manufacturers strive to optimize service costs through the most optimal supply chain management, which in most cases represents circa 80% of the product value. In doing so, those companies play an important role to support OEMs in achieving their business goals.
Electronic Manufacturing Services’ Advantages
There are many advantages that the original equipment manufacturers can get from the EMS, such as:
- Reducing costs. OEMs can reduce their capital investments by outsourcing EMS services.
- Time effective, the electronic manufacturing services manufacturers handle everything from design, manufacturing, testing, and distribution to after-sale services like repair and return and warranty management.
- Advanced technology, by outsourcing the electronic manufacturing service manufacturers, you can develop electronic products with the most advanced technology.
- Electronic manufacturing services manufacturers improve speed to market. It’s possible for OEMs to work on other areas involved in manufacturing/producing their equipment by outsourcing to EMS manufacturers, in order to ensure that equipment can quickly reach the target market.
- You can get greater agility to improve productivity offered by EMS manufacturers.
Electronic Manufacturing Services’ Disadvantages
Although there are many advantages, unfortunately, there are also disadvantages when using EMS, such as:
- Electronic manufacturing services create a risk of your intellectual property being stolen since by outsourcing for the EMS manufacturers you provide access to your intellectual property.
- If not properly managed, OEMs could run into a communication gap once they subcontract an Electronic Manufacturing Services manufacturer and that may lead to various problems like unmanageable timelines, internal miscommunication, as well as lack of a transition plan.
- There is also the risk of losing control of the manufacturing process if there is no constant supervision.
The electronic manufacturing industry is evolving rapidly, thus having updated tech will help keep pace with changes. Getting the answers to detailed questions about the product and the services will guide decisions on whether a company could help a potential customer notice EMS benefits. Nevertheless, researching the areas regarding the matters first will help your company to have a more precise understanding of why many businesses use electronic manufacturing services.
