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Siplace Convention 2006

Meet the top global electronic manufacturers
Siplace Convention 2006

With its Siplace Convention the Siemens AG has definitely established an international top event in Munich. Representatives from more than 320 companies in the electronics industry took the chance to come together at Siplace headquarters to learn about new technologies, talk about trends, share knowledge and get new inspiration for their daily business. The core topic of the two-day event and the keynote address by Michael McNamara, the CEO of Flextronics: Equipment suppliers and electronics manufacturers of today need to work very closely together on all levels, to stay successful in their businesses. This has to be backed up with extremely sophisticated supply chain management skills.

In his welcome address to the truly international auditorium, Tilo Brandis, head of the global Siplace team, examined the major transformations of recent years and provided an outlook on future changes in the industry. He stated that for Siemens the answer to all these developments is clear: “As an equipment supplier, be a technology partner instead of a machine supplier. Today customers expect competent partners who know their business processes and help them to optimize their globalized production facilities and supply chains,“ said Brandis.

The first day of the Siplace Convention concentrated on Siplace solutions and future technology trends. In many specialized workshops, sessions and small groups, the guests individually got to know the latest innovations and technology trends along the entire electronics manufacturing process chain. The spectrum of subjects ranged from flexibility-increasing systems for floating setups and concepts for zero-defect production to the innovative Siplace forecasting approach for the Electronics Industry. As always at Siplace events, the guests could take a very close look at the latest developments, such as hardware and software for accelerated new product introductions, for integrated production and material management, and for 01005 placement processes. Other sessions presented service innovations that help producers to lower their costs while increasing their productivity and quality.
The Siplace team presented ample proof that it is no longer sufficient to sell excellent machines, but that the future belongs exclusively to those suppliers who are able to provide comprehensive solutions on the basis of global quality standards while making sure that consistently excellent and global supply chain processes support their customer relationships.
Particularly popular were the intense talks between Siplace developers, market experts, managers and customers that established an excellent foundation for even closer relationships in the future.
McNamara: Positive outlook for EMS industry
The second day started out with the keynote address of Michael McNamara, the CEO of Flextronics. In his exciting presentation, McNamara outlined the critical growth factors for the coming years. He forecasted an average EMS growth rate of ten percent – six percent generated by the market itself and an additional four percent by the rising trend towards outsourcing among brand manufacturers.
By raising its sales significantly, Flextronics intends to get an above-average slice of this pie. For McNamara, this optimism is justified due to the fact that Flextronics has the right answers for its customers’ wishes, with low-cost production facilities all over the world, the provision of added value and high levels of specialization.
Supply chain architects will be the leaders of the future
As an example, McNamara provided some details of Flextronics’ restructuring activities. The different requirements of Industries, like Medical, Mobile Phones, Computing, Digital Consumer, Infrastructure, Automotive and Industry have asked for the creation of separated business units. Today, seven business units have specialized for the sake of Flextronics customers. “Take for example the quality requirements in these segments, they differ extremely. When we told medical equipment engineers about our successes in mobile phone production, they were not at all thrilled”, said McNamara. His conclusion: only EMS providers who specialize – in quality, costs, locations and distribution – will be able to convince their customers that they can provide added value for them.
For example, some of this added value may come from efficient supply chain management. “This is where many EMS providers still have room for improvement and therefore the potential for growth”, said McNamara. To further provoke his audience, he even postulated that “supply chain architects will be the business leaders of the future.”
Innovative, multicultural and supply chain-oriented
The participants in the following panel discussion underscored McNamara’s findings. They talked in great detail about the steadily increasing demands on EMS providers as customers want ever lower prices, better quality and faster deliveries. What makes their lives even more difficult: EMS companies that discover potential productivity improvements and want to implement them can do so only with the OEM’s permission. Customers in safety-critical industries such as medicine, aerospace and automotive are particularly sensitive in this regard and want to be asked about even the slightest modification.
Another major factor for success, according to the panelists, is the quality of a company’s people, with the ability to manage and lead people from different cultures and successfully address international markets becoming increasingly important.
Like McNamara, the panelists agreed on the significant importance of Supply Chain Management. According to Geir Einset, Director Global Operations at Elcoteq, making the supply chain as efficient as possible requires good logistics coupled with solid manufacturing technology. Geir Einset emphasized that all electronics manufacturers, whether they are large or small, have a need for powerful placement solutions that can be customized for their particular applications. Although Siplace meets this need in every respect, Siplace head Tilo Brandis reminded everyone that “today it is no longer sufficient to supply excellent machines. Only equipment makers who provide comprehensive solutions on the basis of globally consistent quality standards and support the business processes of electronics manufacturers 100 percent with comprehensive supply chain management have a chance to survive.” In this respect he mentioned the “Best Factory” or “Supply Chain Management 2006” awards which give prove that Siplace is setting an example in the industry.
All panelists agreed on the fact that the supply chain reaches far beyond one’s own placement lines and in-house logistics. It starts with material and component procurement and ends with the delivered product. In all cases, physical proximity to your partners is an important factor, as Mike Harby, Managing Director of medium-sized EMS specialist SMS Electronics, confirmed.
With the last two presentations, Siemens invited their guests to take a look at other industries and at the culture of innovation. Jürgen Jarkowski, in charge of Industry and Transport Markets at 3M Deutschland GmbH, explained the way his company promotes innovation actively and systematically. “Your employees are innovative. But you have to give them the time to demonstrate and implement their talents,” Jarkowski appealed to the audience. For a certain portion of their work hours, for example, 3M developers are entitled to use the corporate research facilities for their own projects. Many successful products such as the legendary Post-it notes and the reflective film on virtually all street and traffic signs have resulted from this policy.
Finally, the concluding presentation by “out-of-the-box thinkers” Anja Förster and Peter Kreuz summarized this approach very succinctly with “be different”. They themselves translated this attitude with an extremely lively and “different” presentation that repeatedly caused the audience to respond across all cultures with lots of laughter and applause.
The Siplace Convention provided an excellent platform for customer and suppliers alike and showed new ways of business partnerships. The organizers garnered a lot of praise for the fact that their schedule also left sufficient room for informative meetings and interesting discussions with colleagues from all over the world.
EPP Europe 403
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