Breaking Up is Hard to Do

摘要

WHEN IMPLEMENTING OPERATIONALimprovements, most electronics manufacturing services companies focus on optimizing processes on the production floor, reducing inventory turns or other key metrics. One area that often doesn't get enough continuous improvement focus is customer base composition. Most EMS companies have a few customers that either don't fit their business model or are so out of control in terms of forecasting or receivables that they cost more than they bring in.Why do these customers exist? Three reasons. First, most customers don't become bad customers overnight. Typically, their attractiveness diminishes over time due to strategy changes in their sourcing patterns, staff changes or financial difficulties. Second, downturns followed by component availability challenges on the scale we've seen in the past year tend to mask the process of a good customer becoming a bad customer because all projects are facing demand volatility and asking for favors. Finally, EMS companies