FIRSTRONIC

Firstronic is a premier specialty provider of electronics manufacturing services (EMS), including turnkey electronic assembly and materials management services, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the electronics industry. Firstronic’s electronic manufacturing services consist primarily of the manufacture of complex printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) using through-hole and surface mount technology (SMT), interconnection technologies including fine-pitch and mixed technology pr... oducts. Their Lean Operating System has been developed and implemented by a team of executives with significant automotive industry experience. Their lean approach has redesigned traditional electronics manufacturing and has resulted in high customer satisfaction ratings leading to very rapid growth in an industry that has otherwise been in decline throughout North America. They are focused as a strong niche player in the complex EMS segments, primarily in the medical, industrial, and automotive markets. Their customers rely on their broad range of capabilities, superior customer service and highly flexible manufacturing operations specifically geared toward low-to-medium volume production. They utilize sophisticated equipment in their manufacturing operations, which enables their team to provide synchronous flow manufacturing with a high degree of flexibility. Their Lean Operating System utilizes standardized metrics to ensure consistent performance throughout their facilities. They have standardized on the latest Siemens high-speed vision based SMT equipment with state-of-the-art soldering technology to reduce set-up and changeover times, which is key to efficiently producing low-to-medium volume products in a high-mix environment. Based upon this synchronous flow approach, they have been able to reduce order lead times to days, whereas most providers in the EMS industry require a fixed production schedule of several weeks.