Site:

Wong's Electronics Company, Ltd. (WEC)
Wong's Ind. Centre, 180 Wai Yip St., Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2345-0111; Fax: (852) 2797-8119

Participants:

Sunny Chau, Assistant General Manager, Sales and Marketing
Ricky Siu, General Manager, Welco China Limited
Simon Au, Engineering Manager, R&D Department
Clarence Wong, Senior Manager, Concurrent Engineering Department

Mission and Strategy

• WEC manufactures high-end OEM and ODM electronics products and systems. WEC provides a total manufacturing solution, being vertically integrated into PCB supply, plastics and metal parts supply, electronic assembly, with global procurement, manufacturing, and sales.
• Customers seek cost-reduction and reengineering of first-generation products. WEC goes through a "three-step" process to cut vendor costs, production costs, and design costs. Any cost improvement after production begins is shared 50-50 with customers.
• Sales in 1994 were divided among computers (35%), peripherals (25%), telecommunications (25%), and other office equipment, medical electronics, and industrial products (15%). Sales were divided among North America (55%), Japan (25%), Europe, and Southeast Asia (10% each). The percentage for 1995 decreased some for North America and increased for Japan.
• WEC makes Pentium 5 PCBs for NEC in China as an ODM joint development project to reduce costs; hard disk drives for Conner; printers; PCB subassemblies for Xerox office equipment worldwide; small PBXs for Executone in the United States; U.S. cordless and cellular telephones for Toshiba; and power supplies for ABB in Europe. The computer sector is decreasing with the growth in other areas.
• The Hong Kong factory was ISO 9001 certified in 1994, the Malaysia factory was ISO 9002 certified in 1993, and the China factory was ISO 9002 certified in 1996.

Key Elements of Presentation

• Wong's International (Holdings), Ltd., is the parent company for electronics product-related companies accounting for 5,500 employees and sales revenues of $315 million in 1995. WEC had total revenues in 1994 of $190 million, 60% of the group's sales. 7 factories have 1.1 million ft² of manufacturing space.
• WEC began assembling electronic products in 1977; it established a joint venture in 1980 with Atari in China for games and toys, and a manufacturing facility in 1990 in Johore Bahru, Malaysia, to diversify risks.
• Key components are produced by Wong's Circuits (PCBs), Season Industries (plastic parts), and Tomiyama Wong's (precision sheet metal). Wong's International China is a sales distribution company that helps customers enter the China market.
• Five strategic business units have production lines, warehouses, and engineers.

Key Elements of Tour

• Prototype production is done in Hong Kong and transferred to China.
• The China factory has 1,500 workers, 160 staff, 60 supervisors, and 40 HK staff. There are 2 main factory buildings (210,000 ft²) plus plastics/metal parts supplier factories.
• Conner's line is mature and has only a 3% cumulative defect rate.
• WEC has 9 Fuji CP2/3/4 and two new Fuji CP6 high-speed chip-mounting machines; 15 Yamaha YM-100VP IC-mounting machines accurate to 15 mil QFP; plus a new Universal GSM-1 IC mounting machine for 12 mil placement required for assembly of 2.5-inch hard drive assembly and BGA placement.

Core Competencies

• WEC has 8 sets of Micro Cadam Plus and two sets of 3D Cadkey stations and designs to international standards. It has limited ODM capabilities.
• Equipment is standardized in factories for SMT, through-hole, and testing.
• It has a variety of Genrad and Teradyne testing equipment. Average pin count for testing is 1,200; maximum is 3,584.

Conclusions

• WEC helps Japanese firms cut costs via Chinese sourcing and production.
• It is reorganizing to handle higher-volume customers with dedicated SMT lines.