Flextronics set to touch new heights in EMS market

- Advertisement -

By diversifying its product portfolio and strengthening its workforce, Flextronics India is all set to improve its market share and conquer the industry leadership position

By Kartiki Negi

Monday, January 06, 2014: A global major in electronics manufacturing services and a leading supply chain solutions provider, Flextronics has been present in India for over a decade. Working across four business groups and several business units, Flextronics offers its services to world’s most of the valuable brands and new ventures. It is focused on delivering complete design, engineering, logistics and manufacturing services, and has managed to carve a niche for itself with a whopping $24 billion in sales (globally), generated from helping its customers to design, build, ship and service their products through a network of facilities in more than 30 countries across four continents.

- Advertisement -

In India, Flextronics has grown immensely in terms of its revenue and workforce since it commenced its operations here. “This has been possible by following our principles of being persistent, unyielding and tireless,” says Ashok Dhawan, vice president and managing director, Global Business Services (GBS), Flextronics. “We have a never-ending focus on winning and do not accept the second place. We have a clear vision of what it takes to win, and work relentlessly to become an even stronger team and company,” he adds.

The company looks forward to aggressively building up its market share and industry leadership position in India. “India is a crucial investment destination for Flextronics, as the market has grown by 22 per cent, while manufacturing has grown by 15 per cent. Flextronics is capitalising on this opportunity to serve the burgeoning electronics sector in India,” says Sekaran Letchumanan, vice president, operations, Flextronics. “Our manufacturing facility is located in a special economic zone where it receives highly favourable benefits. Another attraction is that Chennai alone has 120,000 engineering graduates and 60,000 technical diploma holders. Labour costs are also competitive. Logistics support, infrastructure and the supply chain are also rapidly developing,” adds Sekaran Letchumanan.

The journey so far

Shop floor in Chennai
Shop floor in Chennai

When Flextronics first arrived in India back in 2001, its strategies were more aligned towards manufacturing. However, gradually, the company expanded its range of offerings and started the Global Business Services (GBS) and Flextronics Global Services and Software (FGSS) units. “Today, the company has grown nearly ten-fold since its inception in India, and currently engages over 6000 employees across all its facilities and units,” says Dhawan.

Flextronics GBS was set up in 2005 and its units are located in Chennai and Pune, providing end-to-end support services. These units have 3500 employees, who serve 320 global Flextronics entities at 130 locations.

Established in 2002, the FGSS units are located in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon, and are capable of fixing highly complex BGA equipment. They provide the full range of after market services, which include warranty management, repairs, inbound and outbound logistics management, field and channel returns, vendor management, materials planning, etc.

Its Chennai Industrial Park (CIP), which was set up in November 2006, offers engineering, manufacturing and logistics services.

Ashok Dhawan, who has been associated with the firm for the last seven years, strongly feels that the biggest limitation Flextronics faces in India is the lack of a domestic electronics ecosystem, an issue that Flextronics had faced even 12 years ago when it started operations in the country. “We want the government to create a more conducive ecosystem that encourages further investments and business growth. The government understands the industry’s issues and we remain optimistic about a positive outcome,” says Dhawan.

Ashok Dhawan, VP and MD, GBS, Flextronics
Sekaran Letchumanan, VP, operations, Flextronics
Sekaran Letchumanan, VP, operations, Flextronics

In 2012, Flextronics begun extricating itself from the RIM business as it did not generate consistent sustainable profit. Though the company is still serving Blackberry in India, Flextronics’ relationship with RIM is going to downsize as their business changes and modifies.

What it offers

According to Dhawan, Flextronics creates value. It not only increases the speed to market and drives competitive positioning for its customers, it also has the ability to solve its customers’ most challenging problems better, faster and more cost-effectively. Due to its large global presence, Flextronics customers are supported with speed in product ramp-up, delivery, and the ability to manage volumes, regardless of the complexity or product mix.

Flextronics India provides end-to-end supply chain solutions that deliver design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics services to a range of industries and end-markets, including data networking, telecom, industrial, capital equipment, automation, medical electronics, automotive, aerospace and defence, energy, mobile telephony, computing and other electronic product categories.

Some of the products that are currently manufactured at Flextronics’ CIP include cellphone chargers, routers, optical networking products, food testing equipment, printer cartridges, etc,” says Sekaran Letchumanan.

The CIP provides end-to-end manufacturing services ranging from PCBA to box build, BTO, CTO, and Level 10 system integration services. “Our service offerings and vertically integrated component technologies optimise customer supply chains by lowering costs, increasing flexibility and reducing time-to-market,” says Letchumanan.

Strengths and limitations

Telecom, optical products, power supplies, lighting, computing and LTE devices are some of the manufacturing strengths of Flextronics. However, Sekaran feels that the core strength of the company is its footprint across the globe and its workforce.

We have core manufacturing operations around the world. We operate in 30 different countries, and have roughly 200,000 employees globally. All these are very powerful platforms that allow us to spring forward and drive business growth. To top it all, we offer our customers real-time information about visibility, risk and execution,” says Sekaran.

Leveraging its manufacturing best practices, key investments in infrastructure and FlexQ, a propriety quality programme, Flextronics is one of the market leaders in every space it operates—be it high mix/low volume or low mix/high volume manufacturing. Optimisation is what Flextronics does best. “We follow several manufacturing best practices such as lean, Six Sigma, single piece flow, take time manufacturing, zero defect line, component level traceability, etc,” says Sekaran Letchumanan. Apart from these, the company has also adopted cost savings measures such as Kaizen and lean tools which includes 7QC, the 5WHY approach, value stream mapping, ETE productivity improvements, etc. The company also leverages its global supply chain strengths.

We religiously follow the strategy of providing exceptional quality and speedy delivery. We always strive to exceed customer expectations to retain our top slot among the top EMS companies in India,” adds Sekaran Letchumanan.

Flextronics’culture is its strength, which is built on commitment to customers, employees and society. Corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) is a vital part of Flextronics’ culture—one that it proudly identifies as a sustainable competitive advantage. “Our culture and business model work hand-in-hand to ensure simplicity, flexibility, competitiveness and, above all, sustainability. We are a leading employer of specially-abled people in the electronics industry (5 per cent of our employees are specially-abled),” explains Ashok Dhawan.

Awards Won
Flextronics GBS won the award for the ‘Best Talent ManagementStrategy’ at the World HRD Congress in February 2011Flextronics CIP won the award for the ‘Best HR Strategy in Line with Business’ at the World HRD Congress in February 2011Flextronics’ senior director and head of human resources, South Asia, garnered the ‘HR Leadership Award’ (Global HR Excellence Awards 2010-11); the ‘Pride of the HR Profession Award’ at the Human Capital Summit, 2011; and the ‘Leadership & Inspiration Award’ at the India Leadership Summit, 2011

Infrastructure

Flextronics has very wisely established its facilities at technologically strategic locations across the country, such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Pune. The total area of the company’s facilities accounts for more than 92,903 sq m (1 million sq ft) across India. All the plants are well equipped with modern facilities and the latest machinery.

Flextronics’CIP is spread over a 59,985 sq m (645,663 sq ft) manufacturing floor space and 200 acres of land has been left for further expansion. The GBS facilities in Chennai and Pune have a combined manufacturing floor space of around 27,357 sq m (294,472 sq ft), while the FGSS plants situated at Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon are spread over 9179 sq m (98,800 sq ft).

Some of the best technologies have been adopted at the CIP, including 0201 component placements, BGA placement, IC placement up to 0.5 mm, ultrasonic welding, a state-of-the-art QRE lab, single layer to 24 layer placement, thermal reliability chambers, ALT (accelerated life test), backplane assembly, etc. The park offers some modern facilities such as SMT for PCBA and systems level assembly—BTO, CTO configuration and direct fulfilment. The CIP houses some of the best and latest equipment that include turrets, press brakes and power presses. It uses machines from various companies such as Panasonic, Amada and Fuji.

Future outlook

Flextronics aims to double its workforce in the next four to five years coupled with expansion plans. The company is banking heavily on its GBS division for growth, and has recently inaugurated GBS facilities in Pune and Chennai.

India continues to be the crucial investment destination for the company, as the country offers huge opportunities for the electronics industry that are still untapped to a large extent.

Flextronics is laying more emphasis on providing after-sales services to its OEMs and its customers, as the after-market services industry alone is worth about US$ 600 million and is growing rapidly.

With the government coming up with new pro-industry policies, and since there is a huge gap between demand and supply of electronic goods, Flextronics is trying its best to capitalise on the opportunity to serve the burgeoning electronics sector in India.

KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE 
Year of establishment 2001
Workforce in India 6000+
Production capacity in India One million components per day
Facilities Two in Chennai, one each in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Pune
Major machines at Flextronics CIP SMT machines, turrets, press brakes and power presses from companies like Panasonic, Amada and Fuji
Exports to Germany, The Netherlands, China, Hungary, Mexico
Product range Telecom, optical products, power supplies, lighting, computing, LTE devices
Certifications ISO 9001 and 14001
Contact details Flextronics Technologies Pvt Ltd, No. 143, RMZ Millenia Business Park, Campus II, 6th, 7th & 8th Floors, Dr MGR Road, Kandanchavadi, Chennai 600096

Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine

- Advertisement -

Most Popular Articles

Automotive car sensor

ISRO Chairman Urges Association With Automotive Industry To Produce Sensors Locally

0
The space research organization is making significant strides in creating indigenous car sensors to empower the automotive industry. At the Bangalore Tech Summit on November...

U.S. Approves $1.5B Subsidy For GlobalFoundries Expansion

0
Winning the $1.5 billion US government subsidy, GlobalFoundries is looking to power industries like automotive, IoT, and defence with advanced chip manufacturing in New...

Trump’s Tariff Plan Could Derange Electronics Pricing

0
From disrupting global semiconductor supply chain to inflating iPhone prices, what can Donald Trump's proposed tariff raise on Chinese imports can cause? Donald Trump,...
Chip Manifacturing-NIvidia

New Blackwell Chip Will Propel Nvidia’s Unprecedented Market Growth In Coming Years

0
These chips have effectively dispelled concerns regarding potential pullbacks from tech giants investing heavily in AI processing and data centers. The global AI backed fabless...

David Goeckeler Appointed Chair Of SIA Board

0
Bringing 40 years of tech experience to lead the global semiconductor industry, David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital, joins to lead the SIA Board...
Abhishek Malik from Calcom Vision Limited

“India’s Electronics Sector Is Growing Rapidly, Making This The Decade For Investors To Engage”...

0
From the complexities of manufacturing and sourcing components to testing processes that drive innovation, know all the exciting dynamics shaping this ever-evolving industry in...
Sunit Kapur, CEO of Epsilon

“Epsilon Leads With Low-Carbon Graphite Manufacturing, Outpaces Chinese Competitors” – Sunit Kapur, CEO of...

0
Are LFP cathodes and silicon-graphite anodes the best for cost efficiency in EV batteries? Sunit Kapur, CEO of Epsilon Advanced Materials, discusses this with...
John W. Mitchell, President and CEO, IPC

“India’s Core Focus On 5G, IoT, AI Fosters Need For Advanced Electronics,Components, And Semiconductors”...

0
Will Industry 4.0 supercharge India’s progress in semiconductor and electronics manufacturing? IPC President and CEO John W. Mitchell shared more strategies on the country’s...
Raman M., Co-Founder and CEO, chargeMOD

“Our Goal Is To Achieve Complete Sustainability By 2025-2026” – Raman M. Of chargeMOD

0
In a conversation with Nitisha Dubey from EFY, Raman M. of chargeMOD, elaborated his goal of developing virtual power plants by decentralising power production. Q....

“Adoption Of IoT-Enabled SMT Machines Is Still In Early Phases” – Pradeep Tandon, Director...

0
While electronics are becoming smarter through the Internet of Things, is electronics manufacturing following suit? Pradeep Tandon, Director for India, Middle East, and SAARC...
Applied Materials Representational Image

Applied Materials Selects Six Startups For Deep-Tech Accelerator Programme

0
The selected deep-tech startups will be evaluated for investment by Applied Ventures and potential collaboration opportunities with Applied Materials. In collaboration with the company's India...

Space tech Startup Akash Secures $68M CHIPS Funding

0
Eyeing to power into AI, EVs, and more high-tech industries, Akash Systems lands $68 million CHIPS grant to boost its cooling tech facility, generating...

Wireless Light-Based Communication With Velmenni’s Technology

0
Velmenni is at the forefront of wireless communication innovation with its pioneering light-based technologies, Li-Fi and LC Link. Founded by Deepak Solanki in October 2014...

Harnessing AI Technology For Efficient Pest Management

0
AI-Genix, an agri-tech startup, is transforming pest management for farmers through advanced AI-enabled systems that precisely target harmful pests. In an industry where pesticides and...

One Charger To Charge All Your Devices

0
Now, there is no need to carry different chargers for different products. This Bhubaneswar startup has launched a universal 65W charger using GaN technology...

Industry's Buzz

Learn From Leaders

Startups