Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Current Issue

Focus on Business

To win the deal, put preparation before price.

While there can be pockets of higher margin business, the electronics manufacturing services industry is for the most part a fairly low margin industry. Those margins get worse with a weak sales process. Simply put, if all contractors look equal, the decision will be made on lowest unit price most of the time. Picking the low bidder is always a safe and defensible choice. If one contractor appears to provide a better solution than the rest, slightly higher pricing is permitted.

Read more: Are Buyers Commoditizing Your Company?

Joseph Fama

Parity emerges among EMS Factories from Asia, Mexico and the US.

For the first time in years we see parity in the Eastern US among EMS factories from Asia, Mexico and the US. This EMS market condition will permit American OEMs (the EMS industry refers to OEMs as customers) to have more EMS pathways to choose from. Now more than ever, such EMS assignments will require deeper investigation relating to the OEMs’ evaluation of manufacturing strategies.

Read more: Eastern-US: China’s New Competitor?