The first 6 months

We should already have a detailed understanding of parts of your supply chain at this stage.

It’s important that you are honest and open about the state of your supply chain. 

It often makes sense, in the long run, to hand over full control of your supply chain to us. But we understand you may not want to go down this route. There are alternatives, however. The first logical step is to continue using some of your current suppliers during the transition period.

You could retain full control over your supply chain which means continuing to buy materials from your incumbent suppliers. 

It is also possible to nominate your preferred key suppliers to us and we can work directly with them, however, in this scenario, you could still find yourself responsible for top-level supplier management reviews their on-going performance.

We do ask that you tell us any future purchase commitments you already have in place along with other vital pieces of information.

Once the goods start to arrive, our logistics team will inspect each item against our internal standards and procedures. Our material inspection process can be broadly divided into two categories: 

Electrical components

We want to ascertain whether something is what it’s meant to be - the right part, the right quantity and the correct revision - and the paperwork, labels, date codes and external packaging all match our expectations. If we are unable to source your material in time, due to obsolescence or allocations, we will discuss options with you. We believe it’s vital to be transparent with you and if we need to source material outside of franchise we will always let you know in advance. 

Electro-mechanical parts

All made-to-print items such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), metalwork and plastics are inspected against their drawings. 

Working closely with a range of customers and suppliers, we have developed our own cosmetics specification document that we can share with you. All material that passes inspection is booked into our system, given a unique batch code.

In order to produce your initial quote, we will have already received some form of build pack from you with all of the data pertaining to your product. But a lack of data, or incorrect data, can impact production and delivery times significantly. The more detailed documentation you provide, the smoother and easier the whole exercise will be.

Using the NPI module within the factory Logix software by Aegis, we create our own comprehensive build packs, regardless of how complete your data is. 

One of the most crucial elements of any outsourcing project and will demonstrate to you that JJS is capable of consistently delivering a quality product. 

During this time, one of our NPI engineers will oversee all stages associated with assembly, test and outbound logistics. These steps are barcoded and then linked back to an operator once they complete them for traceability purposes. We have deliberately made our works order colour code system both simple and visual. 

Red - NPI

Yellow - Pre-production

Green - Full production

Blue - ECN

At each stage of the manufacturing process, there is an opportunity for operators to make a note or observation so that critical information can be incorporated back into the build pack.

The earlier in the manufacturing process you find faults, the easier and less expensive they are to repair. Ideally, we’d like to carry out all of your testing requirements in-house, but you may not be ready to hand over this function immediately. We will work with you to devise the best strategy.

It’s important not to overlook outbound logistics in the early stage of your outsourcing. The amount of responsibility you choose to hand over to use exists on a spectrum. To gain the most value, it really is worth considering choosing an end-to-end manufacturer solution, whereby JJS send your tested products direct to the end-user OEMs who outsource a small part of an assembly, customisation test, packing and shipping are only benefitting from some of the savings and efficiencies of outsourcing.

For a stage-by-stage in-depth look at the first six months of an EMS partnership, download the full eBook: