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April 26,2019,Philippines—Before contracting an outsource electronics manufacturing services or EMS provider, you must have a lot of questions that you want to ask them like what services do they specialize in or how much can they help you with your business. It can also be presumed that since you are reaching out to an outsource EMS provider, you do not know much about the EMS or global manufacturing industry in general, and have plenty of questions about it as well.

To ease your curiosity and concerns, here are answers to three of the most frequently asked questions about the EMS industry.

What is the scope of EMS?

As the term suggests, EMS involves every electronics manufacturing service available which includes product design and development, assembly, production, and testing of electronic components and devices, and printed circuit boards (PCB) mostly for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It is also common for EMS to provide additional onsite services such as PCB etching and even support in introducing your product to the market like in the process new product introduction. In totality, the scope of EMS process starts in collecting raw materials for your project, then moves on to the testing and mass production phases, and can end with the distribution stage or the repair of your products.

As for the kind of OEMs that the EMS industry serve, they usually come from industries of information technology (IT), telecommunication, medicine, industrial, automotive, aerospace, renewable energy, power semiconductors, consumer electronics, and more, as long as they deal with electronics and PCBs.

What is lean manufacturing?

Lean manufacturing is a concept that focuses on minimizing waste within manufacturing systems without sacrificing productivity. In short, lean manufacturing means manufacturing without waste.

How is it different from traditional manufacturing? The study Lean and Green manufacturing: Concept and its Implementation in Operations Management by Suresh Prasad and S.K. Sharma published in 2014 states that lean manufacturing techniques are conceptually different from the traditional process. While traditional manufacturing work is based on inventory, lean manufacturing, on the other hand, questions the role of inventory and defines it as a waste.

You might also assume that since the goal of lean manufacturing is to reduce waste, it is practically another name for green manufacturing. However, while green manufacturing is a method of manufacturing that minimizes waste and pollution, it is not the same concept as lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing can result to green manufacturing, but it does not mean that green manufacturing is only limited to lean manufacturing.

Is there a difference between AME engineering and traditional manufacturing?

AME engineering, also known as advanced manufacturing engineering, as its name suggests, is the integration of new, advanced, and innovative techniques and technologies for improved and more competitive products. However, with the rapid technological advancements and its increasing utilization even in traditional manufacturing, it is possible to wonder if today’s global manufacturing industry as a whole is slowly transforming or transitioning to AME engineering.

In the mid-1960s, manufacturing was still clearly divided into two categories—traditional and advanced. Traditional manufacturing was all about hard product industries like automotive and industrial, while advanced manufacturing dealt with medical devices, computer technologies, automation, robotics, and other similar industries that were considered advanced during its time. In the recent years however, industries that were long considered traditional manufacturers have already embraced advanced manufacturing due to rapid technological advancements. Advanced manufacturing today is no longer about which products are being produced, but is now about the processes by which products are built.

If you have any more questions about the EMS industry, it should be best to ask them through your contracted EMS service provider. Ask not only to be educated by experts, but also to see if you can trust them based on how much they know about the industry they work in.