Do you know how to choose the best EMS Electronics Manufacturing Services partner? Any company that wants to outsource the manufacturing of cables, PCBAs, and integrated devices needs to know what to consider. It’s more beneficial today than any other time in our industrial history to outsource manufacturing. Faced with limited resources, many find it’s no longer the best strategy to manage all manufacturing in-house. Instead, it’s best to focus skilled teams on the value chain. Outsourcing items like PCBAs, cables, and other components can positively impact the core details of a business operation, from product development to quality assurance and logistics.
Trusting a specialized manufacturer allow you access to the latest tools, robust processes, and production to maximize efficiency in design and testing. Taking the risk of choosing the wrong partner for business requirements lead to delays, cost overruns, and quality problems. When you partner with experts in manufacturing, you can achieve quicker speed to market compared to businesses using only in-house resources. Like any good alliance, you should choose a trustworthy partner to meet your demands for the long haul.
How to Choose the Best EMS Electronics Manufacturing Services
- Experiences – The EMS partner you choose should have experience in manufacturing the type of products you need. Consider the market segments your EMS partner specializes in. Nortech’s area of expertise is in medical, industrial, defense, and aerospace.
- Capabilities – Your manufacturer should also have capabilities to meet your specific needs. This includes having the right equipment, facilities and personnel. An EMS partner whose capabilities support extremely high volumes, and little customization may be a fit for some projects, but a partner with capabilities for highly customized projects will likely fit your needs better.
- Quality – Any partner you choose should have a strong commitment to quality and a flexible, robust quality management system (QMS) in place. Their QMS should include a corrective action process, which helps identify the root cause of problems and institutes actions to prevent recurrences.
The best EMS electronics manufacturing services also have certifications. If the manufacturer is ISO 13845, AS1900, and ISO 9001 certified, there is a robust quality management system in place.
- Service – Another strong characteristic of what to look for is excellent service. This includes being responsive to your needs, providing you with regular updates, and resolving any problems quickly and efficiently. It also means their employees are trained in their content. At Nortech our employees are trained appropriately on policies, procedures, and work instructions relevant to their jobs and project. The manufacturer you choose should also be aware of how important quality is in the organization with documented proof per certification standards.
Selecting the Best Manufacturer
If possible, visit the EMS partner’s facilities to see their operations and meet their teams in-person. The partner you choose should be based on your specific project goals. It’s important to remember choosing best EMS electronics manufacturing services is a long-term decision. You will work closely with engineering, operations, and service teams and want to be confident in your choices. Working together can produce a successful high-quality product to meet all business needs. Speed to issue resolution is critical for customer satisfaction and commercial success, plus FDA approval. An experienced provider can effectively assist through this crucial process.
Bonus Tips & Paths to Choosing an EMS Partner
- Get referrals from other businesses in your industry
- Use relevant social networks such as LinkedIn
- Speak to fellow businesses in the industry
- Attend tradeshows to get educated and connected
- Visit the EMS partner’s facilities and meet with their management team
- Meeting face-to-face is a great networking tool and visually conceptualizing the production environment is incredibly helpful
- Ask for references and check them carefully
- This is similar to a hiring process
- Build a strong relationship with your EMS partner
- This will help ensure your projects are completed on time and to your satisfaction
Collaborating with a contract manufacturer during lifecycle management enhances the efficiency of the end-to-end process. Outsourcing production can come with risks. This is why it’s important to find experienced partners and avoid quality control issues and communication barriers. Before making a final decision make sure the manufacturer has what you need. The list should include technical capabilities, capacity, facilities, and a robust operating system to provide the services. Finally, review the provider’s willingness and capacity to scale systems, utilities, and processes to meet your project’s requirements.
Nortech Systems is your go-to strategic partner for highly tailored and innovative engineering and manufacturing solutions. Our capabilities are unparalleled in quality and performance, and we excel at helping customers solve their problems efficiently. With multiple clients in various market segments, our experience allows us to provide unique and valuable perspective on the customer’s market while educating them on new issues that could affect their business. Our highly equipped global manufacturing facilities allow us to customize and scale our services to meet changes on demand.
Ready to get started with an EMS partner? Contact us for more information now!