How to choose your electronic subcontractor ?

An electronic subcontractor is commonly called an EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services). It usually offers printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing and/or printed circuit board & subassembly (PCBA) assembly services.

In addition to these services, they may also offer design, validation or distribution services.

Outsourcing in order to create innovation…

In a globally digitalized society, the promise of growth in the field of electronics is very strong. As a result, project leaders are seeking partners who are fast, flexible, reliable, innovative and competitive in order to produce their products under the best conditions.

As a project manager, we like to plan for the long term. Also, when we are considering subcontracting a project, we expect our partner to share the same ambition and desire to change things.

… & value together

What we want is to make the processes flow, limit iterations, and save time, without ever hindering creativity.

What we hope to find is more than just a maker; it’s a shared creative energy combined with rigorous processes and expertise that is based on continually asking questions in relation to the issue that we consider to be most important: How can we work towards operational excellence more and more each day?

All the services provided by LACROIX in the fields of Smart Industry and Lean Management contribute to the competitiveness and innovation of project leaders.

In order to respond to this demand and create the EMS of tomorrow, LACROIX, together with its entire ecosystem, is creating the electronics industry of the future.

Innovation in the electronics sector is based on the three pillars of operational excellence: technical expertise, expertise in processes and quality cooperation.

In order to generate performance, it is essential that a contract manufacturer have a view of their activity in the long term. Here at LACROIX, we created our “Smart Industry” strategy 4 years ago.

Then, we set out major milestones which were identified with the support of the company’s management. At the heart of this strategy, we have linked real-world needs to new technologies in two fields: digitalization and automation of processes. These are two areas that generate performance.

Each stage of the product’s life cycle should be the subject of particular attention.

This is the principle of Lean Management. The biggest issue consists of guaranteeing the robustness of the project, from design through to industrialization. The evidence
is clear: investing 10% more in development means you can avoid up to 100% of additional production costs. Anticipating, preventing and foreseeing are three top priorities!

Interoperability is the operative word. In Smart Industry, as we understand it, continuity of data must be ensured between different information systems, pieces of production equipment, and employees throughout the development and production cycles for a product.

Interoperability will allow exchanges to be facilitated between the company’s different departments in order to meet our customers’ expectations. This is key to successfully dealing with the issues of speed, flexibility, reliability and competitiveness. Specifically, we have implemented the “Real Time Monitoring” project which consists of providing the
performance of our production equipment in real time, using indicators for “Overall Equipment Effectiveness”, quality, and component rejection.

In addition, to improve our “Design for Manufacturability” (DfM) approach, we have integrated the Valor solution which consists of automatically obtaining the product’s design
weaknesses in relation to our rules on producibility.

It is by having an industrial tool that is at the cutting edge of technology, which is digitalized, automated, collaborative and has the most innovative technologies, that we will best support our customers from tomorrow onwards

By investing in Smart Industry, we are giving ourselves the ability to respond to any future challenges.

Smart Industry allows us to accelerate exchanges and make them more reliable. Digitalization and automation allow us to focus on issues related to added value. New technologies provide us with solutions that allow us to change our working methodologies.

For example, we have set up a “Forecast and Order Automation” project which allows us to automatically enter the customers’ needs in our ERP.

We have set up an entire automation approach for some of our production processes by integrating AGVs on our lines as well as cobots and robots.

The commitment of LACROIX’s teams is the first condition for success. However, outsourcing is a choice that can be tricky. With its endto-end support option, LACROIX offers a dynamic of innovation that is truly collaborative.