About Benchmark Electronics

Benchmark Electronics, Inc. provides advanced manufacturing services (electronic manufacturing services (EMS) and precision technology (PT) services), which includes design and engineering services and technology solutions. From initial product concept to volume production, including direct order fulfillment and aftermarket services, the company is a trusted integrated services partner to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Served markets include commercial aerospace and defense (A&D), medical technologies, complex industrials, semiconductor capital equipment (semi-cap), next-generation communications and advanced computing. The company has manufacturing operations located in the United States and Mexico (the Americas), Asia and Europe. The company's customer engagement focuses on three principal areas: Manufacturing Services, which include printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) using both traditional surface mount technologies (SMT) and microelectronics, subsystem assembly, system build and integration. System builds and integration often involve building a finished assembly that includes PCBAs, complex subsystem assemblies, mechatronics, displays, mechanicals, and other components. These final products may be configured to order and delivered directly to the end customer across all the industries the company serves. Manufacturing services also includes precision technology services consisted of precision machining, advanced metal joining and welding, cleaning, assembly and functional testing primarily for the semi-cap (serving semiconductor capital equipment customers) and A&D markets. Design & Engineering Services, which include design for manufacturability, design optimization for the company's factory processes and supply chain, and test development, concurrent and sustaining engineering, turnkey product design and regulatory services. The company's engineering services may be for systems, sub-systems, printed circuit boards and assemblies, and components. The company has the flexibility and capability to engage anywhere in the customer's design process flow. The company provides these services across all the industries the company serve. Technology Solutions, which involve developing a library of building blocks or reference designs primarily in defense solutions, surveillance systems, millimeter wave (mmWave) radio frequency (RF) subsystems, and front-end managed connected data collection systems. The company often partners with its customers to merge these solutions utilizing the company's engineering services to provide turnkey product development from requirements through the launch to volume production into the company's factories. The company's building blocks can be utilized across a variety of industries, but the company has significant focus and capabilities in the A&D, medical, next-generation communications, and the complex industrials markets. The company has also developed differentiated capabilities in RF. The need to improve size, weight, and power (SWaP) to accommodate high frequency electronics communications is important to customers in the A&D, medical, and next-generation communications markets. Strategy The company's strategies are to focus on more complex products for customers; lead with design & engineering services and leverage advanced technology solutions; maintain and develop close, long-term relationships with the company's customers; deliver complete manufacturing solutions globally; optimize the company's global footprint; and pursue strategic acquisitions. Services Through the Benchmark network, the company offer sa wide range of design, engineering, automation, test, manufacturing, and fulfillment solutions that support the company's customers' products from initial concept and design through prototyping, design validation, testing, ramp-to-volume production, worldwide distribution, and aftermarket support. With the company's balanced footprint, the company has the ability to serve global and regional customers. The company supports all of its service offerings with supply chain management systems, superior quality program management, and integrated information technology systems. The company's comprehensive service offerings enable the company to provide a complete solution for the company's customers' outsourcing requirements. All of the company's services are supported through a strong quality management system designed to globally provide the process discipline to reliably deliver high quality services, solutions and products to the company's customers. Manufacturing Services (Electronics Manufacturing and Testing Services) As OEMs seek to provide greater functionality in smaller form-factors, they increasingly require sophisticated manufacturing technologies and processes. The company's investment in advanced manufacturing equipment and process development, as well as the company's experience in innovative packaging and interconnect technologies, enable the company to address these evolving requirements. The company's specialization in packaging and interconnect technologies include but are not limited to: Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) and Test. The company offers its customers expertise in a wide variety of traditional and advanced manufacturing technologies. The company's technical expertise supports complex PCBA and test solutions, assembly of subsystems, circuitry and functionality testing of printed assemblies, environmental and stress testing and component reliability testing. The company provides its customers with a comprehensive set of PCBA manufacturing technologies and solutions, which include: Surface Mount Technology; Substrate Technology, Rigid Epoxy, Flex, Ceramic, Glass, Rigid-Flex; Plated Through Hole Technology; Pin-in-Paste Technology; Hybrid RoHS Soldering Processes; Wafer-Level CSP (WLCSP); Flip Chip; Chip-on-Board and Wire-Bonding; In-Circuit Test; Microelectronics (Mixed SMT and Microelectronics Assembly); and Inspection and Test Solutions (Automated Optical Inspection (2D & 3D), Automated X-ray Inspection, Flying Probe, Boundary Scan Test, In-Circuit Test, Board Level Functional Testing, Device/System Integration Functional Test, Electrical Safety Test, Microelectronics Test, and Vibration, ESS, HASS and HALT). The company also provides specialized solutions in the support of its customers' components, products and systems, which include: Conformal Coating and Potting; Underfill and Encapsulation; Ultrasonic Welding; Automation Solutions; Complex Final Assembly; Configure | Build to Order; Fluidics Assembly; Splicing and Connectorization for Optical Applications; Hybrid Optical/Electrical Printed Circuit Board Assembly and Testing; and Sub-Micron Alignment of Optical Sub-Assemblies. Component Engineering Services. The company provides support to its customers to assist their understanding of the evolving international environmental laws and regulations on content, packaging, labeling and similar issues concerning the environmental impact of their products, including: 'RoHS' (EU Directives 2011/65/EU on Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances Directive and 2015/863 amending Annex II to Directive 2011/65/EU); 'WEEE' (EU Directive 2002/96/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment); 'REACH' (EC Regulation No 1907/2006 on Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals); EU Member States' Implementation of the foregoing; 'Conflict Minerals' as defined in the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act § 1502(b), implementing legislation and rules; and the People's Republic of China (PRC) Management Methods for the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products. Manufacturing sites in the Americas, Asia and Europe regions are experienced with both water soluble and no-clean processes. Systems Assembly and Test. The company offers a full spectrum of subsystem and system integration services, including assembly, configuration and testing for all industries the company services. The company designs, develops and builds product-specific manufacturing processes utilizing manual, mechanized or fully automated lines to meet the company's customers' product volume and quality requirements. The company works with its customers to develop product-specific test strategies. The company's test capabilities include manufacturing defect analysis, in-circuit tests to check the circuitry of the board and functional tests to confirm that the board or assembly operates in accordance with its final design and manufacturing specifications. The company either custom designs test equipment and software itself or use test equipment and software provided by the company's customers. The company also offers its own internally designed functional test solutions for greater cost savings and flexibility in addition to providing environmental stress tests of assemblies of boards or systems. Additionally, the company provides product life cycle testing services, such as ongoing reliability testing where units are continuously cycled for extended periods while monitoring for early-life failures. Failure Analysis. The company offers an array of analytical solutions and expertise to help the company's customers address their most challenging engineering and business issues, including focused techniques for failure mode, failure mechanism, and root cause determination. Specialized analytical skill sets associated with electrical, mechanical, and metallurgical disciplines are used in conjunction with a vast array of equipment, such as ion chromatography, x-ray florescence, and scanning electron microscopy. The company's lab facilities provide customers with detailed reporting and support in an unbiased, timely and cost-effective manner. Mastering emerging technologies, coupled with an understanding of potential failure mechanisms, positions the company to exceed customer expectations and maintain the company's technological diversity. Precision Technology Services (Precision Machining and Complex Vertically Integrated Assemblies) In addition to traditional EMS, the company offers complex precision technology (PT) services, including full electromechanical assembly and test services. Benchmark Precision Technologies delivers critical tolerance to metal fabrication and assembly, building components, sub-assemblies, and full module assemblies for highly regulated industries, including semi-conductor capital equipment, aerospace and defense, medical, and complex industrials. Benchmark Precision Technologies' capabilities go well beyond the typical machine shop in that they can design and engineer a prototype, transition it to an accelerated manufacturing protocol (AMP) center to prepare for full volume production, and then shift it to any of Benchmark's global manufacturing facilities. Precision Technologies Group. The company provides vertically integrated precision mechanical components and complex electromechanical assemblies. The processes supporting these include Complex Small / Medium / Large Precision Machining; Advanced metal joining including vacuum chamber welding, electron beam laser and brazing; Multi-Axis Robotic Grinding for demanding applications such as turbine blades and scientific instruments; Complex Clean Room Assembly and Functional Test; Major Electromechanical Assemblies; Large precision and industrial frame fabrication, welding, grinding, bead blasting and coating; and Sheet metal forming, powder coating and painting. Global Network The company's operations include manufacturing facilities in seven countries, which are strategically located to support full product life cycle services for the company's customers. The company has domestic facilities in Alabama, Arizona, California, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Texas; and international facilities in China, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania and Thailand. The company's network also includes design centers that lead customer engagements and provide solutions to customers in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Design and Engineering Services and Technology Solutions The company endeavors to add value to customers through coordination and integration from concept, design, prototype and other engineering services in the support of the company's customers' go-to-market and product life cycle requirements. These services strengthen the company's relationships with its manufacturing customers and help attract new customers seeking similarly specialized design and engineering services. Early engagement with engineering-led solutions is key to the company's strategy of focusing on products with greater complexity in the company's targeted verticals. New Product Design, Prototype, Testing and Related Engineering Services. The company offers a full spectrum of new product design, automation, test development, prototype and related engineering services for projects contracted by the company's customers who pay for and maintain ownership of the resulting designs in the company's contract design services business. The company employs a proven seven-step process from concept-to-production in the company's design services model which enables a shorter product development cycle and provides the company's customers with a competitive advantage in time-to-market and time-to-profit. The company's multi-disciplined engineering teams provide expertise in several core competencies critical to serving OEMs in the company's target markets, including award-winning industrial design, mechanical and electrical hardware, firmware, software and systems integration and support. The company creates for its customers specifications, designs and quick-turn prototypes, which are then validated and ramped into volume manufacturing. Custom Test and Automation Equipment Design and Build Services. The company provides its customers with a comprehensive range of custom circuit and functional test equipment, process automation and replication solutions. The company has expertise in tooling design, test solutions, equipment control and process, systems planning, process automation, systems integration, replication and programming. The company's custom test solutions, process automation and replication services are available to the company's customers as part of its full-service product design and manufacturing solutions package or on a stand-alone basis for products designed elsewhere. The company also provides custom test equipment and automation system solutions to OEMs, which pay for and own the designs. The company's ability to provide these solutions allows the company to capitalize on OEMs' increasing needs for custom manufacturing solutions, which in turn provides an additional opportunity for the company to introduce these customers to the company's comprehensive engineering and manufacturing services. Technology Solutions. The company is investing in building blocks and solutions such as secure defense turnkey design and reference platforms in avionics, ground vehicle electronics, vision systems and soldier platforms that require ruggedization for harsh environments and secure communications. The company is developing advanced manufacturing capabilities and processes for RF microwave designs that utilize highly accurate micro-electronics, complementing the company's engineering expertise in these areas. The company is focused on the high frequency and size, weight and power requirements which address the challenges in the defense and next-generation communications markets. Supply Chain, Order Fulfillment, and Aftermarket Support Services The company's customers often face challenges in designing supply chains, demand planning, procuring materials and managing their inventories efficiently due to fluctuations in their customer demand, product design changes, short product life cycles and component price fluctuations. The company employs enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and lean manufacturing principles to manage procurement and manufacturing processes in an efficient and cost-effective manner so that, where possible, components arrive on a just-in-time, as-and-when-needed basis. Because the company is a significant purchaser of electronic components and other raw materials, the company is generally able to capitalize on the economies of scale associated with the company's relationships with suppliers to negotiate price discounts, obtain components and other raw materials that are in short supply, and return excess components. In the support of the company's engineering services, technology solutions and manufacturing services, the company offers its customers a wide array of capabilities from early supply chain design, to order fulfillment, to aftermarket services. Value-Added Support Systems. The company supports its engineering, manufacturing, distribution and aftermarket support services with an efficient supply chain management system and a superior quality management program. The company's value-added support services are primarily implemented and managed through a web-based information technology system that enables the company to collaborate with its customers throughout all stages of the engineering, manufacturing and order-fulfillment processes. Supply Chain Management. The company offers full end-to-end supply chain design, inventory-management and volume-procurement capabilities to improve access to supply, optimize cost, and reduce total cycle time. The company's materials strategy focuses on leveraging its procurement volume company-wide while providing local execution for maximum flexibility. The company employs a full complement of electronic data interchange transactions with the company's suppliers to coordinate forecasts, orders, reschedules, and inventory and component lead times. The company's ERP systems provide product and production information to the company's supply chain management, engineering change management and floor control systems. The company's information systems include a proprietary software stack that controls serialization, production and quality data for all of the company's facilities around the world using state-of-the-art equipment and control techniques to provide high quality product with superior traceability throughout the product lifecycle. To enhance the company's ability to rapidly respond to changes in the company's customers' requirements by effectively managing changes in the company's supply chain, the company utilizes web-based interfaces and real-time supply chain management software products, which allow for scaling operations to meet customer needs, shifting capacity in response to product demand fluctuations, reducing materials costs and effectively distributing products to the company's customers or their end customers. Direct Order Fulfillment. The company provides direct order fulfillment for some of its OEM customers. Direct order fulfillment involves receiving customer orders, configuring products to quickly fill the orders and delivering the products either to the OEM, a distribution channel or directly to the end customer. The company manages its direct order fulfillment processes using a core set of common systems and processes that receive order information from the customer and provide comprehensive supply chain management, including procurement and production planning. These systems and processes enable the company to process orders for multiple system configurations and varying production quantities, including single units. The company's direct order fulfillment services include build-to-order (BTO) and configure-to-order (CTO) capabilities. BTO involves building a complete system in real-time to a highly customized configuration ordered by the OEM's end customer. CTO involves configuring systems to an end customer's specifications at the time the product is ordered. The end customer typically places this order by choosing from a variety of possible system configurations and options. The company is often capable of meeting a 2- to 24-hour turnaround time for BTO and CTO fulfillment. The company supports its direct order fulfillment services with logistics that include delivery of parts and assemblies to the final assembly site, distribution and shipment of finished systems, and processing of customer returns. Aftermarket Non-Warranty Services. The company provides its customers with a range of aftermarket non-warranty services, including repair, replacement, refurbishment, remanufacturing, exchange, systems upgrade and spare part manufacturing throughout a product's life cycle. These services are tracked and supported by specific information technology systems that can be tailored to meet the company's customers' individual requirements. Marketing and Customers The company markets its services and solutions primarily through a direct sales force organized by market sector. In addition, the company's engineering, operations, and executive management teams are an integral part of the company's sales and marketing approach. The company generally enters into master supply agreements with the company's customers. These arrangements generally govern the conduct of the company's business with customers relating to, among other things, the design and manufacturing of products that in some cases were previously produced by the customer. The company's key customer accounts are supported by dedicated teams directly responsible for global account management. These teams coordinate activities across the Benchmark global network to effectively satisfy customer requirements and have direct access to leadership and executive management to quickly address customer concerns. Local program managers and customer account teams further support the global teams and are linked by a comprehensive communications and information management infrastructure. In addition, the company's executive management is heavily involved in customer relations and devotes significant attention to broadening existing and developing new customer relationships. Sales to the company's largest customer, Applied Materials, Inc. and subsidiaries, represented 12% of the company's total sales in 2023. Seasonality The company has historically experienced higher sales during the fourth quarter of the calendar year (year ended December 2023) aligned to the fiscal year end for many of the company's customers. In addition, the company typically experiences its lowest sales volume in the first quarter of each year. Competition The company's competitors include Celestica Inc., Flex Ltd., Jabil Inc., Plexus Corp, and Sanmina Corporation. History Benchmark Electronics, Inc. was founded in 1979. The company was incorporated under Texas law in 1981.