Flextronics
 | |
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: FLEX |
| Industry | Electronic manufacturing services |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Founder | Joe McKenzie and Barbara Ann McKenzie |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
Key people | Mike McNamara, CEO |
| Website | http://www.flextronics.com |
Flextronics International Ltd. (simply known as Flextronics or Flex) is an American supply chain solutions company that offers design, manufacturing, distribution and aftermarket services[1] to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Flex is a Global Fortune 500 company based in the Silicon Valley (filing in Singapore) and is the second largest global Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) company by revenue, behind only Taiwan's Foxconn.
Flextronics has manufacturing operations in over 30 countries, totaling approximately 27.2 million square feet and 200,000 employees.
History
In 1969, the company was founded in Silicon Valley as Flextronics, Inc. by Joe McKenzie. In 1980, the company was sold to Bob Todd, Joe Sullivan and Jack Watts. In 1981, Flextronics became a publicly held company.
In 1990, the company returned to being a private company in a leveraged buyout and was renamed as Flextronics International, Ltd. with Singapore as its new base. In 1993, the company received venture capital funding through Sequoia Capital,[2] and became a public held company again in 1994. The company closed its contract electronic manufacturing plant in Richardson, Texas in 1996. The company acquired two companies in Hong Kong, Astron Group and FICO Plastics Ltd. and a Swedish-based company, Ericsson Business Networks. In 2000, the company ranked third on "100 Best-Managed Companies" by Industry Week. In 2005, the company purchased the manufacturing division of Nortel Networks, and Solectron in 2007. In 2006 Flextronics took over a part of the production of LEGO, but in 2009 LEGO decided to end relations with Flextronics and purchase the production facilities in Mexico and Hungary.[3] On June 4, 2007, Flextronics offered to purchase Solectron for US$3.6 billion and thus making Solectron a subsidiary of Flextronics. The acquisition of Solectron was completed by end of October 2007, earlier than anticipated.
On March 18, 2009, Flextronics was invited to ring the NASDAQ stock market opening bell, signifying the day’s start of trading and celebrated 15 year NASDAQ-listed anniversary. Mike McNamara (CEO) and a group of top executives represented the company at the ringing of the bell. On August 25, 2009, Flextronics announced that it was chosen by LG Electronics (LGE), a global provider of advanced digital products and applied technologies, to manufacture 19, 22, 26, 32, and 37-inch LCD television receivers at its Juarez, Mexico facility for distribution to the North and South American markets.[4] On September 2, 2009, Flextronics announced that Multek received Danaher Test and Measurement's 2009 Outstanding Supplier Award. The award was given based on quality, delivery performance, engineering support and cost for work with two of Danaher's business units, Tektronix and Fluke.[5]
On September 15, 2010, Flextronics announced that it had been chosen by Brammo, Inc., a global leader in the electric motorcycle business, to be its manufacturing partner for the production and distribution of plug-in electric motorcycles and components. The partnership represented an expansion of Flextronics' Automotive Division's portfolio for battery powered vehicles and complemented its expertise in high voltage and energy recuperation for the automotive market.[6][7] In 2010, the company signed an agreement with Lenovo to provide manufacturing for Europe. That same year, Flextronics also signed an agreement with Brammo to provide acquisition and manufacturing in North America, Asia and Europe.
In 2012, Flextronics incubated Elementum, a start-up supply chain management (SCM) company based in Mountain View, CA. In 2014, Elementum spun off from Flextronics as its own separate entity.[8]
In 2014, Flextronics was named as the manufacturer of the Fitbit Force by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in the context of a complete recall of the product due to rashes developing on the wrists of its users.[9]
Business Areas
High Reliability Solutions
High Reliability Solutions covers avionics, flight and engine controls, ruggedized communications, wire harness for ground and air vehicles, night vision systems, security systems and surveillance. In the energy area, Flextronics supports generation, to transmission and distribution to smart use. Within this group, Flextronics also produce automotive smart electronics, lighting and clean tech products.
High Velocity Solutions
High Velocity Solutions covers consumer electronics products such as mobile phones, smartphones, portable audio devices, wearable electronics, wireless modules, home entertainment equipment, game consoles, printers, PCs, notebook computers and tablets, as well as home and business connectivity products such as set top boxes, gateways, femtocells, home automation devices and VoIP terminals. High Velocity Solutions customers range from multinational corporations to technology startups.
Integrated Network Solutions
Integrated Networks Solutions covers telecommunications, including optical networking; networking, such as enterprise infrastructure; and servers and storage space, including cloud computing hardware. Seventeen manufacturing sites offer OEMS while seven design centers provide complex design capabilities such as low power cloud servers, dense high-speed backplanes, EMI modeling, line card design for optical transport and mobile backhaul tower designs. Integrated Network Solutions customers span from growth companies to established companies.
Industrial and Emerging Industries
Industrial and Emerging Industries covers appliances, capital equipment and self-service products, safety and security, meters and controls and printers, navigation and positioning technologies, and Flextronics Special Business Solutions (SBS). SBS specializes in manufacturing lower volume, highly diversified products for all industries. Products vary from complex printed circuit board assembly to simple product integration, with production capabilities of one to several thousand units.
Lab IX
In 2013, Flextronics launched Lab IX, an accelerator program based out of Milpitas (where the company also has an R&D center), which will award $500,000 to each selected company to grow their ideas and bring it to market.
The focus of Lab IX is to find startups that are less than three years old, have less than $5 million in funding: “early stage disruptive companies incorporating hardware and software innovation.” In addition to a capital injection, Lab IX will also provide access to Lab IX and Flextronics’ engineers and designers, including IDEO, access to manufacturing and prototyping equipment — some $30 million in the R&D center alone. Those who look like they may be progressing to the next stage of their development get access to Flextronics’ network of factories for manufacturing, procurement network and marketing network.[10]
Controversies
Leak of iPhone 4 and iPad confidential data
One of the former Flextronics executives, Walter Shimoon plead guilty to commit wire fraud and security fraud by providing confidential informations related to iPhone and iPod sales figures in the third and fourth quarters of 2009. He also leaked details surrounding the iPhone 3GS, which was unreleased at the time, and the still unannounced iPad.[11][12][13]
Breach of contracts
Flextronics was sued what was apparent in breach of contract with Beckman Coulter Inc. , medical device maker. The case dates back to 1997, when Beckman Coulter entered into an agreement with Dovatron, a unit of the Dii Group, to provide circuit boards for a Beckman blood analyzer. Flextronics acquired the Dii Group in 1999 and, according to Beckman, shortly thereafter Flextronics refused to provide the circuit boards unless it bought other electronic components from the company.
Beckman filed suit in early 2001, seeking $2.2 million in damages, which were cited as the costs incurred in having to retool one of its plants to manufacture the circuit boards in-house.[14][15]
At the end of trial, Flextronics paid $23million for the damages.[16]
Customers
Below is a list of major customers to which Flextronics provides design, manufacturing or after-market services:[17]
| Company | End Product |
|---|---|
| Alcatel-Lucent | Business telecommunications systems and core routers and switches |
| Cisco | Core routers and switches, wireless and enterprise telecommunications
infrastructure |
| Ericsson | Radio base stations for Long Term Evolution and GSM infrastructure |
| Fitbit | Manufacturer of Fitbit Force [18] |
| Ford Motor Company | SYNC Modules, Lighting Products, Solenoids and Motion Control Electronics |
| Hewlett-Packard | Notebook and netbook computers, inkjet printers and storage devices |
| Huawei Technologies | Wireless and enterprise telecommunications infrastructure and smartphones |
| Lenovo | All-in-one desktop, desktop and notebook computers |
| Intel | Processor |
| Microsoft | Computer peripherals and consumer electronics products |
| Apple | Supply chain |
Notes
- ↑ Flextronics - About Us
- ↑ "Sequoia Capital funds Flextronics".
- ↑ http://www.scribd.com/doc/88368389/LEGO-GlobalSourcing-Gothenburg-2010
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Miles, Matthew. "Brammo Partners with Flextronics — Industry News". CycleWorld Magazine. Retrieved 2010-09-16.
- ↑ Williams, Christina (16 September 2010). "Brammo teams with Flextronics". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- ↑ "Flextronics Spins Off Startup to Put Supply Chain Software in the Cloud".
- ↑ http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/Fitbit-Recalls-Force-Activity-Tracking-Wristband/
- ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/hardware-giant-flextronics-is-launching-lab-ix-an-accelerator-that-gives-500k-to-each-startup-to-grow/
- ↑ http://bgr.com/2011/07/06/former-flextronics-exec-pleads-guilty-to-leaking-iphone-ipad-secrets/ Former Flextronics exec pleads guilty to leaking iPhone, iPad secrets
- ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/flextronics-vp-sued-for-leaking-iphone-4-ipad-details/8936 Flextronics VP sued for leaking iPhone 4, iPad details
- ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/apples-weak-link-on-secrets-contract-equipment-manufacturing/42866 Apple's weak link on secrets: Contract equipment manufacturing?
- ↑ http://www.callahan-law.com/Verdicts-and-Settlements/Callahan-Blaine-Wins-934-Million-for-Beckman-Coulter.shtml CALLAHAN & BLAINE WINS $934 MILLION FOR BECKMAN COULTER
- ↑ http://www.mddionline.com/article/california-jury-awards-beckman-coulter-934-million California Jury Awards Beckman Coulter $934 Million
- ↑ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10698823666934400 Flextronics Will Pay $23 Million To Beckman to Settle a Lawsuit
- ↑ Flextronics annual report
- ↑ http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/Fitbit-Recalls-Force-Activity-Tracking-Wristband/
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flextronics. |