Asian contract manufacturers eye design services

The launch of revolutionary products such as the iPhone rocked the electronics world and again brought the value of product design to the forefront.

As demand grows for sleeker, thinner and faster products, product design will be crucial for achieving competitive advantage. Hence, OEMs are focusing on the next disruptive technology and product design that will shake up existing product platforms and propel companies past their rivals.

Toward that end, OEMs and contract manufacturers are collaborating to maintain practical product designs while ensuring manufacturability. Indeed, contract manufacturers are playing a key role in enabling new manufacturing approaches by collaborating with OEMs on product introductions and by providing engineering services.

Increasing competition, price pressures, razor-thin margins and steadily rising economic pressures have created a plethora of new design outsourcing opportunities for electronics manufacturing service providers and ODMs. Product design and time-to-market are the fundamental strategies for jump-starting growth in any business climate.

OEMs are evolving in their perception of the true benefits of outsourcing. The result is that they are imposing more-stringent requirements on their outsourcing partners. In turn, contract manufacturers realize that their growing influence over design outsourcing can have a direct impact on a customer’s bottom line.

Given the situation, ODMs have an advantage over EMS providers. ODMs’ design prowess is well established, as is their position within the consumer electronics, networking, PC and storage
markets.

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