Do you remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? In the story, there’s a little girl named Goldilocks who wanders into the home of a Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear trying out their food and furniture in search of a good fit. Well, much like that young girl looking for porridge that’s not too hot, not too cold, but “just right,” our customers are looking for a partner that can offer the right combination of size, flexibility, cost, customer service, and global footprint to bring their innovations to market.
If you look at the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, there are a few Papa Bears out there – they’re the familiar names with mega-factories that build everything from cell phones to washing machines. They provide all the capabilities and scale, but they can be challenging to work with and often lack the intimate level of customer service that many customers prefer.
There are also many Baby Bears out there—smaller and often more specialized contract manufacturers that can be found close to home but lack the talent and capabilities necessary to tackle the most challenging projects or the global network to scale production.
Then there’s Benchmark. We sit in a unique market position right in the middle…and for most of our customers, they think we’re “just right.” Big enough to offer Tier-1 scale, but small enough to be attentive and agile. We offer the experience and global capabilities on par with some of the world’s largest EMS providers, enabling our customers the flexibility to manufacture in any geography around the globe. At the same time, we are also small enough to stay attentive to our customers and provide agility with our local engineering teams. We specialize in the most challenging and complex technology, from 5G military applications for secure communication and battlefield intelligence to life-saving medical devices. Our engineers are of the highest caliber of talent because our customer’s products keep people safe and ensure critical infrastructure remains operational, making premium quality and reliability an absolute requirement.
Benchmark’s capabilities and technical expertise run the gamut for what’s needed from a partner across industries we serve, including aerospace and defense, complex industrial, medical technologies, semiconductor capital equipment, next-gen communications, and advanced computing. We offer volume-based, low-cost manufacturing at high quality and reliability, optimal price-to-performance ratio, custom product development, better tailoring to specific customer demands, and so much more.
Over the last five years, we’ve significantly upgraded our brand, technology building blocks, and capabilities with a transition from a business model focused on contract manufacturing to a design, technology, and solutions provider with world-class manufacturing services. With this change, Benchmark has successfully grown our customer base because of the unique skills and services we’ve added to make Benchmark a “one-stop” solutions provider.
Benchmark also offers a global network of design, engineering, and manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Asia. Our worldwide facilities are strategically located to provide an intimate level of support to our customers regionally while still scaling with them globally. This allows us to offer the same responsive and highly engaged customer support as a small, boutique EMS firm while still growing with our customers to meet their production needs.
Each of the geographic regions in which we host facilities offers a diverse set of capabilities. This provides us with the flexibility to quickly transfer production to an area with the correct skillset and provide the best-cost-country strategy along the entire value chain. As the global economy evolves and becomes more vulnerable to political strife and natural disasters, the diversity of our facilities and the ability to transfer production quickly can also prevent significant disruptions to our customers.
Benchmark’s global capabilities include:
- Low-cost, high-volume production in Asia, with high-quality output and on-time delivery, providing flexibility when the market demands our customers scale quickly.
- European facilities that provide affordable prices, high-quality services, a vast talent pool, and convenient time zones. These facilities also play host to some of our most advanced services, including PCB assembly, new product introduction, systems integration for build to order, and high-mix assembly.
- High-level design, engineering, test, rapid manufacturing, and prototyping in our U.S. facilities. We’re also proud that we have the largest manufacturing footprint in the U.S., with 39% of facilities located onshore, which allows us to take on highly-regulation IP that can’t be transferred overseas.
- Highly skilled workers in Mexico, where our facilities are close to major markets. Low-labor costs in the region also allow us to keep prices low for customers.
So, no, Benchmark doesn’t believe in fairy tales, but just like Goldilocks, many of our customers have found that we provide a combination of scale and agility that is “just right”. We have the ideal combination of size, worldwide footprint, technical expertise, and high-level customer service, making us the perfect partner for the most challenging technology projects.
Learn more about Benchmark and how we serve customers with a wide and unique range of capabilities and technology solutions at www.bench.com.
