Introduction
We are trying to give solution to the issue of – Manufacturing Capacities Utilisation in Electronics Industry. In this fast-growing economic situation, the demand for electronic goods has skyrocketed due to the increase in buying power. Therefore, in such a scenario it will be deemed obsolete to have a conservative approach with respect to the Electronics Manufacturing capacities. Keeping aside excess Manufacturing capacities foreseeing a surge in demand or seasonal demand is the traditional approach. However, this needs significant rethinking as the surge may be temporary and the Manufacturing plants may not function at 100% capacity throughout the year. Also, there may be times when these are not used for long periods, therefore cutting down the profits.
How to utilise Electronic Manufacturing Capacities Optimally to Increase Revenues?
The following modern rules of Electronics Manufacturing Capacities provide the solution.
1. Use Production Planning Software for Electronics Manufacturing
Production planning and planning software solutions help in generating an effective and scalable production plans. The plans are based on actual capacity, material availability and customer delivery requirement. This in turn will increase the efficiency of resources, shorten lead times, and help in identifying less used capacities. This leads to reduced costs and increased revenue.
2. Invest in Equipment and Manufacturing Technology
Investing in new equipment and technologies not only helps in improving operations, it also enable speedy production of higher quality electronic goods. For example, the use of 3D printing to create new tooling has shown to provide promising results in aiding production and testing.
Therefore, the Electronics Manufacturer should make an objective assessment of the available latest technology. Based on assessment he should choose the one that best fits his product line and business needs.
3. Utilise the Concept of Shared Manufacturing
Manufacturing industry is moving in the direction of Socialization, Interconnection and Platformization. As a result, the concept of shared Manufacturing is gaining popularity.
What is Shared Manufacturing?
Shared Manufacturing to put it simply is the sharing of Manufacturing capacities through P2P collaborations. Traditional factories have challenges managing their Manufacturing resources, production orders and Manufacturing capabilities. Some factories may have enough Manufacturing resources and capabilities but few production orders. Meanwhile others may have enough production orders but lack Manufacturing resources and capabilities. Shared Manufacturing comes to the rescue in such scenarios and bridges the gap.
In this kind of approach, depending upon the scenario, the Electronics manufacturer can either be the customer and use the Manufacturing Capacities of other manufacturers. Or be the producer, where he provides his unutilized Manufacturing capacities to other manufacturers.
The different kinds of shared Manufacturing capacities are as below:
- Sharing of production orders where the electronic manufacturer has too many orders to deliver on time. In such cases he may share these with other manufacturers in order to fill the gap of insufficient Manufacturing capabilities.
- Sharing of Manufacturing capacities to others who lack sufficient Manufacturing resources to expand production.
For eg., a computer numerical control manufacturer (CNC) can have a large amount of production resources. At the same time, a new company may be unable to purchase the CNCs due to their high cost. Then, the new company can use the Manufacturing resources of the CNC manufacturer and derive economic benefits by not investing in CapEx.
4. Use of Contract Manufacturing in Electronics ManufacturingContract Manufacturing is a kind of outsourcing where the Electronics company outsources few or all parts of its end-to-end Manufacturing needs to contract manufactures. The contract manufacturers utilise their Excess Manufacturing capacities to produce the goods on order from these companies. Many of the well known electronic brands make use of Contract Manufacturing facilities, thereby saving cost, and increasing revenue by f core business activities such as design and development, Marketing, R&D , etc. There are several listed companies in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Kannur, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, etc. who do big contract Manufacturing for well known electronic brands.
The recent announcement of the Indian government of a Rs. 76,000/- crore package for the development of a sustainable, Semi Conductor and display Eco-system in the country will provide a major thrust to the Semi Conductor and display Manufacturing industry.
The program aims to provide attractive benefits to companies that are engaged in Silicon Semiconductor Fabs, Display Fabs, Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors (including MEMS) Fabs, Semiconductor Packaging (ATMP / OSAT) and Semiconductor Design. This will definitely boost the contract Manufacturing opportunities in the Electronics sector.
To facilitate shared Manufacturing and contract Manufacturing in the Electronics Manufacturing sector, there needs to be an intermediary mechanism. Mechanism can enable Electronics Manufacturers to share information about their excess Manufacturing capacities worldwide. And at the same time assist potential customers to get value added information on available Manufacturing capacities.
A digital technology platform like Capximize (https://capximize.com/) through its algorithm-based recommender system enables to connect these entities and provide global visibility. This platform provides up-to-date information about Manufacturing capacities that deal with PCB assembly, encasing, plastic moulding/injection moulding and electronic components such as capacitors, resistors, switches, transformers, etc.
With this we have tried to address the question of the Manufacturing Capacities Utilisation in Electronics Industry at an Industry level.
