Supplier partnerships play a crucial role in electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies in Mexico. Today, we are experiencing an exciting time—relocation, driven by geopolitical pressures, is increasing demand in the region. Exchange rates, tariffs, and logistics make Mexico an excellent location for manufacturing products intended for the U.S. market. To fully capitalize on this opportunity, EMS companies operating in Mexico must be agile, efficient, and committed to manufacturing excellence. One key factor in achieving this is strong supplier partnerships, and IMI is a prime example of this strategy. IMI es un claro ejemplo de esta acción.

IMI es una de las empresas EMS más grandes a nivel mundial, con instalaciones distribuidas por todo el mundo. En esta ocasión, Koh Young se reunió con el equipo en Guadalajara para explorar el valor que están obteniendo de la automatización habilitada por asociaciones con proveedores, incluida su colaboración con ellos.

Partners, Not Just Suppliers

Philip Reyes, Regional Engineering Director, has worked at IMI facilities worldwide. His global experience allows him to tailor solutions to each manufacturing environment, considering labor rates, available talent, and more. IMI even manufactures some of the same products in both China and Mexico. 

Philip emphasizes that supplier partnerships are essential to their automation strategy and operational excellence.

"One of the secrets to success is not treating suppliers as suppliers—you need to treat them as your partners. We treat them as partners and collaborate with them." 

During the factory tour, Philip Reyes and Oscar Valdivia, a member of IMI’s Manufacturing Unit in Guadalajara, discussed new challenges and innovations with the Koh Young team.

Philip highlighted: "I was talking to the team and heard that Koh Young had started using artificial intelligence in automated optical inspection (AOI). This is really interesting and shows why supplier partnerships are important for achieving the best results for us and our customers"."Staying informed about each other’s technology roadmaps is highly valuable for both parties. son importantes las asociaciones con proveedores para lograr los mejores resultados para nosotros y nuestros clientes”. Estar al tanto de la ruta tecnológica de unos y otros es de gran valor para ambas partes.

Key Strategies for Enhancing Efficiency

Oscar Valdivia also emphasized the importance of software integration in their strategy and why K-Smart plays a critical role. They aim to leverage machine inspection data while reducing the number of technicians needed to support those machines. Like any manufacturer, being able to manage more machines with fewer technicians not only boosts efficiency but also helps mitigate the growing talent shortage.

Oscar explained that their plant has its own traceability software. As a result, one of their key selection criteria for equipment partners is their software communication capabilities. 

"Koh Young’s AOI is one of the most important, because we have all the results provided by the machine and need to keep records of every product we manufacture," said Oscar. 

Accurate traceability is not just valuable—it’s essential. In high-reliability markets, and increasingly across all industries, high-level traceability is expected to minimize recalls and track design or manufacturing issues. Philip Reyes reinforced the importance of data, stating:"If you don’t have the right data in real time, decision-making is difficult. If this data isn’t delivered on time, it becomes a challenge, because real-time, accurate data is extremely important." There is no doubt that Koh Young is providing critical data to make IMI’s processes faster, real-time, and more precise. 

Rigorous Partner Selection Based on Global Expertise

Since IMI considers equipment providers as technology partners, with whom they collaborate and share roadmaps, their partner selection process is rigorous and exhaustive. Choosing the right partners and equipment is key to IMI’s success as a world-class manufacturer.

To ensure this, IMI has an industrial excellence team that travels continuously between plants. This team plays a crucial role in partner selection. Oscar explained: "We have frequent interactions with them to review our selections. They have expertise in all the regions where we have manufacturing facilities." IMI has consistently chosen Koh Young as its global inspection partner, firmly believing that this type of collaboration is essential for their continued excellence and efficiency in manufacturing.

When to Automate?

Automation is not a decision to be taken lightly. Product type, volume, assembly complexity, product lifespan, and version variability all influence whether and how much to automate, as well as the type of automation to implement.

Oscar elaborated: "IMI has some projects that are highly manual, especially for certain industrial clients, while others are fully automated—often due to customer quality requirements." He continued: "For us, we always start with quality requirements. Then we analyze the volume we need to produce to determine whether we go with automation or a more manual approach."

During the facility tour, the team observed various levels of automation—some highly complex products nearing full automation, others with partial automation, particularly in SMT and partial assembly, and some still relying heavily on manual labor. What’s clear is that a solid automation strategy, combined with the right automation partners, is becoming increasingly critical and a key differentiator.

Addressing the Talent Shortage

IMI Guadalajara employs approximately 1,200 people and operates four shifts, allowing them to manufacture products 24/7. Despite this, talent shortages remain a challenge, with fierce competition for skilled professionals. Oscar believes that: "We need to develop software talent here in Mexico because one of Mexico’s defining strengths has always been quality." He added: "Quality requirements keep increasing—the bar is always higher than the previous year, and customer demands are becoming stricter, no doubt about it." 

Oscar explained that while technology development is crucial, engineers are needed to create new platforms and codes to streamline operations.

Hearing Oscar discuss IMI’s strategies for attracting, developing, and retaining top professionals was enlightening. He emphasized that proactive talent management is critical, rather than simply complaining about the challenges. IMI takes full responsibility for managing talent globally across its organization.

Both Oscar and Philip firmly believe in Mexico, and particularly in Guadalajara, as a strong manufacturing base with significant growth potential. Oscar concluded with confidence: "With the support of the talented people we are training, I am sure we will achieve great success."

Por: Brent Fischthal, Head of Global Marketing, Koh Young.