Almelo is a municipality in the eastern Netherlands and home to Benchmark’s hub in Western Europe. Benchmark’s Almelo site hosts our European Design Center of Innovation, which carries a proven track record of developing high-quality engineering and manufacturing services and solutions. Our Almelo team has also earned a reputation for providing localized R&D services such as industrial design, electrical design, mechanical design, mechatronics, and robotics, along with embedded software engineering and fast prototyping. The market sectors we serve include commercial aerospace, complex industrial, defense, semiconductor capital equipment, and medical.
A History of Expertise and Excellence
The Almelo site has a long history that pre-dates Benchmark. Initially, the site was
owned by two different OEMs and later became an electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider as part of Pemstar. In 2007, Pemstar was acquired by Benchmark. Many of the Benchmark Almelo employees have been with the site through these transitions, learning and evolving through each one. This unique history shapes our culture and gives our team a unique perspective and skill set.
The team in Almelo is heralded for our flexibility in every situation. Over the years, we’ve evolved to meet the changing needs of our customers. The Almelo site has recently doubled in size, and we believe this is because of our deep entrepreneurial spirit. We never feel limited to one type of business model and are open to growing as a team, along with our customers as their needs change.
Our Global Approach
We are proud of our roots in the Netherlands, and our local presence in Western
Europe is an excellent asset within the Benchmark network of sites. On the flip side, our Almelo site and customers have benefited from our global resources.
In Almelo, we take a holistic approach to supporting our customers and regularly utilize resources and expertise from Benchmark sites worldwide. Almelo’s largest customer started with our team over ten years ago. By utilizing Benchmark sites in Penang, Thailand, and various U.S. locations, our team grew the account and now works with entirely different divisions with that customer.
Problem Solvers at Our Core
Our employees are problem solvers at heart, which is the core of what makes this team unique. We don’t get stuck on problems, offload challenges on customers, or view complications as obstacles to success, instead, we see them as opportunities. When engineering service providers come across a challenge, the standard practice in the industry is to bring it to the customer and ask the customer how to solve it. Our approach to being a problem solver adds value to our customer relationship.
A great example of this is when our team began working on a project for DnaNudge, a U.K. MedTech leader, tasked with reengineering their novel DNA testing system into a device for rapid COVID-19 testing. The government in the U.K. placed a mega-order with DnaNudge for 5,000 devices for €161 million, providing all British hospitals with COVID-19 rapid testers. DnaNudge selected Benchmark to help meet the production requirements quickly.
At the start of the engagement, we came across several significant short-term challenges of moving the newly designed tester into production. We created a proactive engineering team to solve this challenge and approached DnaNudge with a solution. This move required an additional investment on our part without a request from the customer. Still, it allowed us to ramp up production quickly, improve the product design and manufacturability, and ultimately successfully hit our goals.
This example demonstrates that even though our passion for problem-solving means we may have to make an out-of-scope investment, we know it will payout in the end because of the tremendous value we add to our customers’ products. This is the exact attitude that has built long-term customer loyalty.
Our Unique Set of Skills
Our team has a proven track record of solutions-oriented innovation and various capabilities such as industrial design, connected devices and systems, and embedded electronics. However, it’s not a single market or type of technology that makes this team excellent; it's our diverse set of skills and top talent across every area that sets us apart from competitors.
The result of our many years of investing in technology building blocks and talent is customers knowing they can come to us for new product introduction, no matter how complex their innovation may be. Utilizing our engineering talent and manufacturing capabilities, a global support network, and many years of experience, Almelo and our partners can take customers across industries through the entire production lifecycle—from design to volume manufacturing and everything in between.
Giving Back to Our Community
Benchmark’s Almelo site is dedicated to supporting our community. While we give back in various ways, Benchmark Netherlands specifically focuses on providing opportunities to students in the technology industries. One example is us sponsoring the Solar Boat Twente, a team of students building
and racing a solar-powered boat they designed against other teams’ boats, encouraging professional growth for students and environmentally sustainable practices. Our team also promotes technical studies and jobs amongst scholars by participating in the High Tech Academy. We believe that getting involved in our community, while nurturing and developing local talent, is one of the most valuable ways we can give back.
To learn more about Benchmark Netherlands and what makes this team unique, please visit us at: bench.com/almelo-the-netherlands.
If you want to learn more about our work with DnaNudge, check out the case study.
