Comments for TFI Weblog

Comment on Benefits of public sustainability reporting to electronics-industry supply chains by kvm switch

kvm switch — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:20:37 +0000

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Comment on The Other EMS: Why ISO 14001 now? by martinageo

martinageo — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:49:27 +0000

This is the concern which exists in the society and needs to be eliminated from the society as soon as possible. ================================== Technology Details

Comment on Employees’ conditions at contract manufacturers: Impact on OEMs’ sales performance? by Bill Peterson

Bill Peterson — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:59:54 +0000

As evidenced by recent comments from Hon Hai (Foxconn) CEO and Founder, Terry Gou and Steve Jobs, the strategy is deny and deflect. Deny that they run sweatshops, deflect the suicides to a root-cause of personal problems and the $14k Life Insurance that went to the suicide victims families (now Hon Hai has removed that benefit, real humane!) This goes beyond mere wages and working conditions. The attitude displayed towards Chinese workers from Taiwanese management is one of contempt and exploitation. The military-like management is particularly cruel. These workers (most are peasants from rural areas) are helpless to deflect or change that. Now, Foxconn has announced that they will hire independent dormitory managers. How about changing your policies and management style instead? Not likely to happen since Gou abuses his VP-corp routinely…flows downhill, as they say…

Comment on Employees’ conditions at contract manufacturers: Impact on OEMs’ sales performance? by Pam Gordon

Pam Gordon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:58:01 +0000

Jian Chen asks an important question. On June 8th while being interviewed on Bloomberg TV I was asked whether prices for electronic products will increase in response to the wage increases. I believe that eventually OEMs will indeed raise prices. I told the TV reporter that consumer electronics products’ prices have been artificially low based on supply-chain practices that defray costs to society in terms of worker rights violations and wasted environmental resources. Also, check out my colleague Mark Natkin’s latest piece on Foxconn’s Shenzhen facility: http://www.marbridgeconsulting.com/marbridgedaily/2010-06-28/article/37033/rumor_foxconn_to_abandon_shenzhen.

Comment on Employees’ conditions at contract manufacturers: Impact on OEMs’ sales performance? by Jian Chen

Jian Chen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:16:41 +0000

Pamela,

If it is difficult to move production away from EMS/ODM, will EMS/ODM be able to pass along a large part, if not all, of the wage increases to OEMs?

Comment on Employees’ conditions at contract manufacturers: Impact on OEMs’ sales performance? by Mike Thompson

Mike Thompson — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:54:56 +0000

We have seen EMS business move from USA to Venture in China for a $1 cost savings. That’s right, $1 savings on a $117 product with resale of $650. Why, you ask the customer.

Comment on Employees’ conditions at contract manufacturers: Impact on OEMs’ sales performance? by Mark LaPointe

Mark LaPointe — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:29:09 +0000

It is interesting that just yesterday I brought up the Cathy lee Gifford situation to a large OEM customer with plants in China. Fortunately or unfortunately I cannot see Apple sales being affected by this. Gifford was vilified by the sweatshop allegations yet most American’s homes are filled with products produced by labor subjected to much harsher conditions than the sweatshops. Even if Apple moves production to another CM, the same conditions will exist at the new EMS facility. Unfortunately, this is the downside of low cost goods in America and Europe. Exploitation of labor has always occurred in the world and will always exist. However, it is important to note that the ill informed will fail to understand the cultural/living condition differences in underdeveloped countries. The standard of living in many of these countries has actually improved as a result of foreign investment in these production facilities

Comment on Supply chains weren’t built with environmental requirements in mind by Jon

Jon — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:31:41 +0000

Interesting topic, Pam. I heartily agree that today’s far-flung enterprises are difficult to manage, and not just from an environmental perspective.

Supply Chains are far more complex than ever before, and the challenges are felt in inventory management, planning and forecasting, and in transport management too.

Comment on Supply chains weren’t built with environmental requirements in mind by Tom Valliere

Tom Valliere — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:09:41 +0000

It is even hard to find vertically integrated component suppliers. Most of the semi guys have moved to a fabless model and distributed design centers, Sales and fullfillment have increasingly been outsourced to 3rd party providers (mostly distribution) as has applications engineering and other technical support. When you truly look at the supply chain from raw materials to the actual consumer, the complexity is mind boggling- espcially considering most everything is multi-sourced so the fan-out of possibilities becomes almost infinite. We can barely track POs and material movements through this maize let alone environmental attributes. The distributors and the EMS providers pool their raw material requirements for all customers for leverage thereby making end to end traceability virtually impossible except in a very general manner. These pose huge challenges to increasing demands for absolute values and accuracy in environmental data.

Comment on Why focus on electronics design and manufacturing in Eastern Europe now? by Michael Gasch

Michael Gasch — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:00:45 +0000

Our industry is coming back (slowly) to the awareness that “price” is not everything.Cost and flexibility do have an adavantage and like American companies discover that Mexico for many things and because of many reasons is a better location than Asia, it is the same thing with Europe and Eastern Europe. M. Gasch

Comment on Why focus on electronics design and manufacturing in Eastern Europe now? by Electronic

Electronic — Tue, 18 May 2010 07:48:26 +0000

MICRON EMS is a dependable Electronic manufacturing services company in bangalore. We are specializing in pcb assembly manufacturer, smt assembly manufacturer, smd assembly manufacturer.for more details visit http://www.micronems.net/

Comment on New wave of due diligence for electronics reuse and recycling by Meredith Courtemanche, SMT

Meredith Courtemanche, SMT — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:00:24 +0000

Pam Gordon wrote on this topic for SMT, with some great additional insights that complement this post. Read her do’s and don’ts here: http://tiny.cc/ewaste

and the rest of SMT’s eWaste blog series here: http://tiny.cc/ewasteseries

Comment on New wave of due diligence for electronics reuse and recycling by Anna Ashmore

Anna Ashmore — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:29:05 +0000

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Comment on The Other EMS: Why ISO 14001 now? by ISO 14001

ISO 14001 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:35:42 +0000

Really exciting news I like to read this article. Now everybody wants natural environments. Thanks for sharing

Comment on Air-travel halt in Europe underscores travel-reduction strategies — both for products and people by John Constantine - Global Business Launcher

John Constantine - Global Business Launcher — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:30:29 +0000

Pam Gordon at TFI wrote about the havoc that supply chains and business travel have endured this week.

John Constantine commented on the global business ramifications:

The Iceland volcanic event is certainly making people think about global business. Companies need a set of suppliers and partners in all of their markets – in case the logistics chain for their main suppliers closes, dries up, is stopped by natural events, etc., etc.

Actor John Clese had to take a $5000 cab ride around Europe to make an event – would your goods and/or executives need to make the same kind of trip???

Comment on Air-travel halt in Europe underscores travel-reduction strategies — both for products and people by Mark LaPointe

Mark LaPointe — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:45:11 +0000

Dear Pam,

I think this headline is too general a comment to make as you are categorically speaking of different job functions and the need to reduce travel. Regarding the sales function, I can agree with virtually all the travel myths with the exception of one. Oracle and companies of their size may be able to command an audience at a potential customer for an online presentation, but not smaller companies with lower asp products. Also, you give up the ability to read customers reactions, body language and other telling actions which are only available during an in person meeting. These points are never mentioned during Citrix’s and Cisco’s online meeting commercials.

Planning for acts of God such as a volcano eruption, terrorist plot and hurricanes are more important for risk managers coordinating production activities rather than sales forces. If a sales trip gets cancelled it is hardly a catastrophe, it happens and is rescheduled. In the case of the CM’s in Eastern Europe, that is where a risk manager should have established redundancies in production lines in other areas to offset the risk of delivery issues. Yet even as “bad” as things are in Europe, we are talking about a week or so of delays as flights have now resumed. Acts of God are typically covered in a contract for just this reason.

I enjoyed the discussion. Thank you.

Mark

Comment on The Other EMS: Why ISO 14001 now? by Green No Science

Green No Science — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:13:36 +0000

Until the science in the green movement has been removed from the political spotlight like “global warming”, this certification is totally worthless to a company that has a superior product. More business for the paper pushers and less innovation.

Comment on Global manufacturing regions: Which are hot, which are not? by John Constantine

John Constantine — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:33:38 +0000

What a great world we live in today, when the delivery of goods and services can be scaled to where the business opportunities are!

- Use an ODM to design and seemlessly manufacture,
- Find a CM near your customer to do final assembly and distribute, or
- Engage a 3PL service to handle the expensive warehousing and logistics tasks

while YOU concentrate on building a regional business!

Comment on Global manufacturing regions: Which are hot, which are not? by Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:45:06 +0000

When the customer is small and just getting started with their electronics, it is necessary for the manufacturer to be close to the customer. As the customer becomes larger, and the products more mature, it becomes cost effective to move manufacturing to lower cost regions of the world such as China. And in many cases there is the hybrid model where the board level production is done in China and the final integration (box build) is done back here in the U.S. close to the customer. This is the way it’s commonly done and it makes sense.

Comment on Global manufacturing regions: Which are hot, which are not? by Jon Gilbert

Jon Gilbert — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:01:31 +0000

Ironically, Greenland is physically much closer to European and American demand centers than China. At first glance, Greenland might look like a great, strategic location.

But distance to markets is only one measure of desirability.

Availability and cost of logistical support, local manufacturing resources, and local demand all must figure into site selection too. This is why we see such concentrations in other locales instead.