TYPES OF MANUFACTURING

Choosing the Right Type of Manufacturing for Your Business

As you think through an outsourcing strategy it is crucial to understand both WHAT and WHY you are outsourcing. Over the past half century EMI has provided outsourced manufacturing and assembly services to hundreds of manufacturers and we have learned a few things. To our minds, here are the important considerations:

Understand where your company excels and adds the most value, and outsource the rest

Doing so gains you the benefit of working with experts for those operations that are not core to your differentiation in the market.

Understand the impact of your Business Model on Manufacturing and Assembly

Here is how to think strategically about different types of production as reflected design, volumes and how a given part fits into the timing of the overall build planning:

• • • Example: Super computer
    • Mentality of Manufacturer: Rapid turn prototyping, "Make It and Move On"
    • Good for: Best for working out engineering kinks & proof of concept work when speed is a major concern
    • Fit with EMI: EMI works with many customers like this

• • • Example: Custom built PCs
    • Mentality of Manufacturer: Batch production is the sweet spot, "Make It and Move On ... but build a strong relationship over time"
    • Good for: Ideal for customized single parts to low volume production where precision is more important than speed
    • Fit with EMI: EMI works with a great many partners like this

• • • Example: Components like hard drives for PCs
    • Mentality of Manufacturer: Repetitive production, "Co-invest in tooling and training because we'll be making these parts for years"
    • Good for: Episodic or repetitive production runs of the same products or a class of similar parts
    • Fit with EMI: A strong fit as many of EMI's most technically advanced partners pursue this strategy

• • • Example: Handheld calculators
    • Mentality of Manufacturer: Continuous production, "Set it up once, work out the bugs and run it as long as possible, years even"
    • Good for: Components of any product that is made in large quantities and stocked indefinitely, such as many consumer products
    • Fit with EMI: Generally not a perfect fit to outsource to EMI

EMI is best positioned to work with companies that need Engineer-to-Order, Make-to-Order and Make-to-Assemble services as they grow from custom products to medium-high production volumes.

For companies that expect their product volume to grow, EMI's volume flexibility is a significant benefit because we eliminate the dangers of supplier transitions as your needs evolve.

When you're ready to discuss your present manufacturing needs and your strategy to grow, let's start the conversation.