One successful partnership has certainly helped bring video equipment manufacturing back to the United States.
ZeeVee, Inc., a developer of high definition video distribution products, recently moved its overseas contract manufacturing operations to Massachusetts from China, where it had been manufacturing since introducing its first-generation products about five years ago.
During the initial product development phase, ZeeVeehad determined that U.S. manufacturers couldn’t adequately support their business model. As the product line evolved, ZeeVee management reassessed the decision after factoring in scale and total cost of procurement. While generally satisfied with the relationship with its Chinese manufacturer, a product shift from consumer to commercial gave ZeeVee an opportunity to reconsider the best type of manufacturing arrangements for its business. After extensive re-evaluation, ZeeVee partnered with Suntron, a North America-based manufacturing services provider whose capabilities matched those of Chinese manufacturers, while also offering logistical, cost and manufacturing benefits.
Eventually ZeeVeehalted Chinese manufacturing and shifted operations to Suntron, which has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, just miles from ZeeVee’s headquarters. The jobs created were a real boost to the local community, and the successful switch has given the fast-growing company lower overall costs, simpler logistics, and faster shipping time, as well as improved communications, rapid prototyping, and better response-time on manufacturing issues.
Growing HD video developer joins the ranks of firms manufacturing in China
ZeeVee was originally founded in 2006 to connect home entertainment, computer and the Internet. As the company matured, itsfocus changed from the consumer market to commercial HD video distribution within hotels, airports, restaurants, bars, schools, hospitals, and other areas high quality video is shown.
Before too long, the shift from consumer to commercial products began to have an impact on ZeeVee’shigh volume manufacturing business. In China,product builds were only performed every month or two, and the units produced were enough to last for long periods of time. The large, batch-oriented nature of production (required to keep costs low) limited ZeeVee’s agility, making it difficult for them to implement a continuous quality improvement process or introduce product variations.
According to Vic Odryna, co-founder and CEO of ZeeVee, the infrequent manufacturing operations also meant the company had to tie up huge amounts of cash each quarter before manufacturing even began, on products that would not be brought to market for months. Then, the products might be on a ship for two or more months, tying up cash for even longer. “It’s almost like a pre-payment for the product –paying for products even before we have them in the building,” he says. Other related issues included customer fallout due to damage incurred during ocean transit, and the headaches of dealing with replacement costs and insurance.
The situation led to shipping logistics issues. Planned orders could be shipped by boat cost effectively, but large quick turnaround customer orders required use of expensive air freight options, which really boosted costs.
Eventually, Odryna asked himself if it might be time to reassess the actual cost-effectiveness of manufacturing in China. At the same time, ZeeVee also took a hard look at what benefits might accrue from manufacturing close to their headquarters in Littleton, Massachusetts. They were eager to gain product flexibility, rapid prototyping, and design for manufacturability, which would help them sustain their high growth rates and achieve continuedcustomer satisfaction.
ZeeVee seeks U.S. manufacturing partner- Suntron answers the call
Odryna assigned his operations manager the task of looking around for possible manufacturing partners located near their design headquarters. They eventually selected Suntron Corporation, an electronic manufacturing services provider headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, which provides electronics manufacturing services and solutions to support high reliability products within the network and telecommunications and other markets.
During discussions, Suntron and ZeeVeeevaluated all the costs involved in the total cost of procurement (TCP), instead of simply unit manufacturing costs. Such costs include the so-called soft costs, like cash cycle times, true shipping costs, insurance, lack of flexibility, turn-around time, fuel surcharges, custom broker fees, and travel/support costs.
Suntron jumped at the opportunity to demonstrate that U.S. manufacturing plants can be cost competitive. The state of-the-art 41,000 square foot facility in Methuen, Massachusetts specializes in system design, integration, new product introduction, direct fulfillment, product life cycle management, supply chain management services, and embedded computing solutions for OEMs and large end-users.
ZeeVee’s new product needs resulted in the need for 20 manufacturing positions. The positions were a good news story that was a source of great excitement in the local community, which had lost its share of manufacturing jobs.
According to Jon Saunders, Suntron’s Methuen plant manager, “Much of the infrastructure needed for ZeeVee’s products already existed at Suntron. The plant was already functional, and the project was a great way for us to grow our business.”
According to Saunders, ZeeVee benefited by the flexibility that Suntron offers over a Chinese manufacturer. “We can customize our services to what the customer needs, while larger Chinese manufacturers often offer cookie cutter approaches that don’t deal well with fluctuations outside the norm,” says Saunders. He adds, “We are small enough to care about the project and offer flexible services, while large enough to make a difference.”
In just a short time, Suntron and ZeeVee got the manufacturing operations up and running. The return to U.S manufacturing has greatly increased ZeeVee’s ability to serve its customers quickly. Suntron is working to ensure that products hit the shipping dock virtually on the same day as they are ordered; the company offers direct order fulfillment capabilities, which also improves delivery times. Domestic manufacturing results in an increased flexibility that facilitatesthe product configuration changes ZeeVee was looking for.
The cash cycle issue is greatly reduced because U.S. firms like Suntron do not require up-front payments for inventory. In addition, the communications benefits are enormous. Rather than waiting 12 hours or overnight and halting production until the factory is open to get an answer to any issues and questions, ZeeVee can immediately resolve issues and keep the line rolling.
The firm is growing rapidly, more than doubling every year, and initially ZeeVeehad a concern that working with a local manufacturing partner might be an impediment to growth. Their fears were assuaged because Suntron has a number of other facilities for scalability, including a manufacturing facility in Mexico. Knowing that Suntron offered other solutions should ZeeVee require other options due to expansion gave them a high comfort level. “As we grow, we are comfortable knowing we have a partner who can work with us to handle an increased volume.” Suntron expects that as ZeeVee’s business continues to grow and they introduce new products, they will be growing along with them, expanding to 30-35 employees. “Their success is going to be our success,” says Saunders.
ZeeVee has also met its goals of improving product design and development. With their China manufacturing partner, all development work required hopping on a plane for a 16-hour flight and losing a week to complete prototyping discussions. Now, ZeeVee can get much earlier and more detailed feedback on design prototypes, fostering productive discussions on designing for manufacturability, an in depth analysis that Suntron provides, which will reduce costs to build products. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, so getting together and showing how things are supposed to work is essential.
“In any product development life cycle, opportunities come up to settle issues, make corrections, and continue improving the time to market. With Suntron, we can test parameters and correlations in the morning, drive to the plant and test it on different equipment and get our answers by the afternoon,” says Odryna. “When you are working with partners halfway across the world, this level of collaboration is just not possible, and that makes a difference when time to market is critical.”
Suntron’s Saunders gives a great deal of credit to ZeeVee for taking the time to quantify what manufacturing in China actually means to their business. He applauds the overall business savvy it takes to look at total costs, saying, “We have been building electronic devices and printed circuit board assemblies for 30 years, and for the last 15 years we have been told that only niche, low-volume high price products can be manufactured in the U.S. cost effectively. We knew differently, and our success with ZeeVee proves that we can manufacture cost effectively in the U.S.”
ZeeVee in turn has high regard for Suntron’s investment in U.S. manufacturing, noting that it was Suntron’s own investment in manufacturing that paved the way for ZeeVee to come back to the U.S.
Is U.S. manufacturing the wave of the future?
According to Saunders, although labor costs in China are increasing, manufacturing there still makes sense for very high volume items and those that require a great deal of hand work. For example, cell phones and disposable electronics are likely to continue being manufactured offshore, due to the nature of the product. However, in his view, firms should take a closer look at manufacturing products in the U.S. He also believes that products requiring a combination of automated equipment and skilled labor can be manufactured very competitively in the U.S., because machines have become more automated and higher machine efficiency allows for greater throughput.
Odryna notes that as the technology evolves, it can be challenging to work with people on the other side of the world, or waiting nearly two months for cargo to arrive by boat. With onshore development, ZeeVee can reduce shipping costs and rush charges, more easily develop new products, and balance SKUs. The bottom line is that ZeeVee can be more competitive.
As jobs continue to be a hot-button issue in the US, there have been a growing number of stories reporting on a shift of manufacturing back to the US due, in part, to rising costs in China, along with concern about intellectual property and patent laws, and a desire to support the U.S. economy. After several months of working with Suntron, ZeeVee said the question other companies should ask is, Why not use a domestic manufacturer? Says Odryna, “Every manufacturer should investigate doing business stateside. ZeeVee has made it work and there is no reason other firms cannot realize the same benefits.”
Ed Wheeler, Suntron’s president and CEO puts it this way. “I firmly believe this success can be replicated by other businesses who take the time to evaluate the total costs of off-shore manufacturing. If your overseas manufacturing isn’t working as well as you hoped it would, try working with a U.S. manufacturer like Suntron. Even if things are going well, Suntron has demonstrated that it can improve cost, quality and other logistics that will allow you to work better as a company.”