On September 17, TV cameras arrived at Flextronics’ facility in Althofen, Austria, to record the opening of the international EMS provider’s third Product Innovation Centre. Sharing the day with the media were many of the executives of Flextronics including presidents from its Energy, Automotive, and Medical segments.
President of High Reliability Solutions, Paul Humphries said the facilities provide clients with the confidentiality, speed and flexibility to bring a product to market faster than ever before. The world of electronics is fast moving, and market windows seem to get shorter and shorter. This means that an OEM needs to accelerate a product to market quickly. Flextronics offer OEMs the ability to get on site in a controlled environment where IP is protected whilst they test and prepare their product for volume manufacturing worldwide, plugging quickly and easily into the global manufacturing footprint of more than 100 facilities that Flextronics operates.
Milan Design Centre, Vice President and General Manager Michele Monico talked the audience through a real life example of bringing a product to market quickly, efficiently and effectively in the highly regulated medical sector. The product, a blood glucose meter, needed to reach the market in half the normal development time and Michele’s team achieved this with innovative solutions whilst tapping into Flextronics’ international resources and supply chain. The product reached the market in the required time and was a big success for the customer. The Flextronics Milan Design Centre, which supports Althofen, has more than 170 design engineers, part of a global design and engineering team of more than 5,000, and that excludes production engineers.
There were three keynotes to follow, all connecting the various parts of the supply chain to create a picture of technology, collaboration and success.
The first keynote was from Prof. W Sihn, Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute, who talked about the importance of innovation for European industry. Professor Sihn also shared some of the successes enjoyed by the Fraunhofer Institute and some of the projects it is currently working on.
The second keynote came from one of Flextronics Althofen’s long-standing customers. Jean Pierre Wyss, executive vice president and co-founder of u-Blox, a maker of navigation modules, presented a paper entitled ‘Ten Years of Successful Collaboration – A Perfect Partnership between OEM & EMS’, a title that speaks volumes about the relationship that u-Blox has enjoyed with Flextronics. Jean Pierre then surprised everyone by awarding the facility with its ‘Supplier of the Year 2013’ awards.
The third keynote was Ralph Pötter from Siplace ASM Assembly Systems, one of Flextronics’ largest equipment suppliers worldwide and the partner for placement equipment at the Althofen facility. His presentation entitled ‘Great Partnerships Create Great Value’ talked of the importance of collaboration in both directions up and down the supply chain. A successful partnership between an equipment provider and user can only achieve optimum value when both sides communicate supporting each other’s development and technology roadmap.
Prior to the official inauguration there was an address from Dr. Peter Kaiser, Governor of Carinthia, who provided the second surprise of the day by bestowing the honor of the Carinthian Coat of Arms on the Althofen facilty.
Rather than the typical ribbon cutting the team at Althofen opted for a more technology driven opening, with the countdown being started by entering a code onto a touch screen, a code that was delivered to the stage on a radio controlled helicopter.
Following a short coffee break the guests enjoyed a factory tour and an excellent lunch, while the media interviewed the executives, dignitaries and customers present at the event.
Althofen is a first class facility in the heart of Austria and has always been a flagship within Flextronics. The site has a great history in manufacturing electronics dating back decades and is ideally suited to a Product Innovation Centre where customers can come and prepare products for the market quickly and effectively, safe in the knowledge their IP is being properly protected and once complete, their product can be fulfilled globally through the manufacturing and supply chain services provided by the company.
This is the third but not the last Product Innovation Centre opened by the company. The first two were in Zhuhai, China, and Milpitas, California, USA and additional facilities are planned and expected to be opened in the coming months, providing customers with access to this accelerated, secure path to market as close to them as possible.
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