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Integrated Microelectronics, Inc.
Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. Moving forward amidst competitive market conditions
How did a company in the electronic manufacturing services industry positioned itself to confidently post a growth of 20 percent yearly? In what way can it achieve this goal if the global environment is marred with a slowly recovering economy?
Speaking from his office at Laguna Technopark, Mr. Arthur R. Tan, President and COO of Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. (IMI), gave the answer and shared plans of "moving forward", a term he frequently usedfor IMI in these protracted market conditions and increasing competitive industry it operates in.
"Nobody has exactly prepared for a situation like this," Tan starts. "We are attributing the 20- percent growth this year to the foundation that IMI was built on for the past 22 years - a value system and a very strong adherence to a high-quality mindset. This mindset should not be limited to the manufacturing processes that we have but individually into the organization, including the support structure staff," Tan emphasizes.
IMI, an Ayala Corporation company established in 1980, directly competes with the much-vaunted contract manufacturers of Taiwan and practically anybody in the world that is into electronic manufacturing services, a very competitive industry resulting from globalization. "But we do not compete on all fronts," Tan clarifies. "IMI has specific focus and markets that we compete in. These are strategic markets that we have identified."
And IMI has distinct advantages in making components for storage, wire, and wireless communication, specifically on optic and RF wireless communication. The decision to focus on these markets allowed IMI to post a growth of twelve percent last year amidst stark conservatism and another twentypercent this year. And 2003, Tan says, "will even be better." But he was quick to qualify that it will not be an exaggerated one and expects the bulk of the recovery by 2004.
The industries that IMI produce for, however, are perpetually on the look out to produce their products more cost-effectively, "And the Philippines has lost the competitive race based on cost," Tan admits. "That's why the key is for us, and the Philippines as a whole, to move up the value chain by transforming and transitioning from simply having a mindset of a manufacturer to a total product realization company."
To make that transition will entail providing "end-to-end services", as Tan terms it. These services include designing, engineering, manufacturing, logistics and quality control. And because of this transition initiative, IMI opted "to stick to the budget allocated for the capitalization needs of the group. We will focus on strengthening our design capabilities in the following months," Tan says.
The result of this transition is the project that puts up a virtual factory, a capitalization on information technology infrastructure. Tan explains, "We are doing it for our strategic partners and customers. It is a service for them. The project will be able to transcend geographic and time-based differences. The aim is to provide, in a 24x7 basis, access to different information for them such as management yield report analysis. All of these will be on an Internet-based interface."
When asked how he sees the role of information technology and such exercises in IMI, Tan offers this insight, "As a whole, we see information technology as an enabler. It is a way for IMI to compete on a global scale. It is a way to get IMI as a forefront of being a global company. It is an enabler for transcending the different internal organizations that we have. IT disseminates information and manages our knowledge base."
Due to this mindset that IMI has about IT, "We are in a continued IT-infrastructure enhancement mode and Fujitsu Philippines is turning out as a major partner for us and our ITfuture." Tan quips.
"We started our business relationship with FPI for some hardware that we needed. It went on to services and currently, we are looking and considering the possibility of setting up a CRM with FPI."
Currently, IMI enterprise resource planning system runs on Fujitsu servers. IMI has also tapped FPI for improvements on company's network infrastructure.
Tan continues, "FPI's value to us is that we will not be able to achieve our IT infrastructure needs and our enhancement program without a strategic partner that will provide us not only of the products but also with a solution. FPI acts as a consultant that can look at the entire value chain. The company understands the concept that we want to achieve. That's FPI's value."
