IBM and Sanmina-SCI sign agreement.IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) (Somers, NY) and Sanmina-SCI Corp. (San Jose San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , CA), an electronics manufacturing This article presents a typical manufacturing process of an electronic assembly. Component manufacturing Components such as resistors, capacitors and integrated circuits are generally made by specialized contractors. service (EMS) provider, have announced an agreement under which IBM will outsource a significant portion of its desktop personal computer manufacturing needs to Sanmina-SCI, and Sanmina-SCI will acquire IBM's NetVista desktop manufacturing Desktop manufacturing or personal fabrication is the use of a personal computer to drive a printer that deposits (or catalyses) material in layers to form three-dimensional objects. It can be used for making prototypes or objects that have limited public demand. operations in the U.S. and Europe. "Today's announcement will allow us to further lower our costs, while we continue to develop and deliver a full line of PC products and services for our customers," said Bob Moffat, general manager of IBM's Personal & Printing Systems Group. "PCs are an important part of IBM's e-business infrastructure offerings. We've been executing a strategy to make this business even more competitive. This agreement supports that strategy, which is to leverage the skills of the industry where it makes sense to improve our costs, and focus more of our own investments on areas that deliver the highest value to our customers." IBM currently manufacturers its NetVista desktop computers in Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park, research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. Named for the triangle formed by Duke Univ. (RTP (1) (Rapid Transport Protocol) The protocol used in IBM's High Performance Routing (HPR) system. (2) (Realtime Transport Protocol) An IP protocol that supports real time transmission of voice and video. ), NC, for customers in the U.S. and Canada, and has this product line manufactured on its behalf in Greenock, Scotland, and mainland Europe for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Europe, the Middle East and Africa, usually abbreviated to EMEA, is a regional designation used for government, marketing and business purposes. It is particularly common amongst North American based companies, who often divide their international operations into the . IBM will continue to design and market the NetVista line of desktops and has signed a three-year, $5 billion outsourcing agreement with Sanmina-SCI to provide desktop manufacturing services for these markets. Sanmina-SCI intends to use the existing locations in RTP and Scotland to fulfill IBM's desktop manufacturing needs and, as part of the agreement, will acquire IBM buildings and equipment related to desktop manufacturing in RTP and take over the management of IBM's existing outsourced manufacturing contract and acquire IBM manufacturing equipment in Scotland. The agreement also includes the transfer of 900 employees in RTP and 80 employees in Scotland. All transferring employees will be offered positions with Sanmina-SCI at the same salary. This agreement covers only NetVista desktop PCs and does not include the manufacturing operations Manufacturing operations concern the operation of a facility, as opposed to maintenance, supply and distribution, health, and safety, emergency response, human resources, security, information technology and other infrastructural support organizations. for IBM ThinkPad notebooks or any other IBM hardware. The agreement does not affect any of IBM's existing desktop manufacturing operations worldwide other than those in RTP, Scotland, and eventually IBM's NetVista desktop manufacturing requirements for Mexico and Latin America, which are now handled out of IBM's plant in Guadalajara, Mexico. |
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