Standardized Systems Make Global Manufacturing Agility Possible: with Zollner's Martin Eisenhart

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (0:07)

Hello, I'm Philip Stoten. I'm here at Zollner in Costa Rica, and I'm joined by Martin from Zollner. Martin, you run the global operations side of the business, the electronic side of the business.

Martin Eisenhart (0:18)

Yeah.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (0:19)

How does Costa Rica fit in that global picture? Because actually having a joined up approach to manufacturing globally is essential.

Martin Eisenhart (0:28)

Well, Costa Rica is a state-of-the-art facility, I would say. So it's in the best cost reach, which is important for us. Having something for the US market, but it's not a pure low-cost facility, so that's not our style.

So we started 10 years ago with the Costa Rica operations, and well, little by little, we've developed a real strategic one within the group. Especially as said, so for higher complex products in the medical market, in the industry, but also in the aerospace, that's what it is.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (1:00)

Yeah.

When I look at EMS over the last 10 years that you've been here, it's become more and more sophisticated. Customers are really trying to build strategic partnerships with their EMS partners to ensure you can take care of supply chain, help with design, manufacturing, aftermarket services. How do you keep up with that sophistication with a global footprint and in somewhere like Costa Rica?

Martin Eisenhart (1:26)

Well, that's a good question. As you said, it's even more important that we don't only have a manufacturing. That's just one part of the whole situation. But keeping the supply chain under control is absolutely mandatory, and that's why we always have the philosophy to have one system, one ERP system in the whole group.

We have one MES system, we have one traceability system. So that helps us to maintain the process at the same level all over the globe.

Also, we have some departments serving on a global area, not on a site level, so like the global procurement like supply chain and technology. So these all together makes us able to keep the land high.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (2:10)

Yeah. I think what's interesting when I look at the history of Zollner, most of what you've developed has been sites you built yourself. There are a few acquisitions in there out of necessity, but generally, it's been that organic builder facility, and you've been able to do that pretty much with the same equipment set. You already mentioned the same software. How important is that to you from a point of view of managing all the facilities, but also to create some kind of global agility across the different sites?

Martin Eisenhart (2:37)

It is absolutely mandatory, I would say, because that helps us really to have a good control over all the sites we have. Worldwide, so we have the same SAP as said, so that helps us to have the full transparency in the supply chain. We have a global MES system to benchmark the sites between and keep them on a high level.

Yeah, that's important for us.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (3:00)

Yeah.

Martin Eisenhart (3:01)

We need to maintain that and it's becoming more and more important. But on the other side, so all the geopolitical situation in the future drives us also to change new ways I would say because we have a global basis. We have global systems, but at the same time, we need to find a way to segregate data to separate data to separate access.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (3:23)

Yeah. That's essential, isn't it? I think working across those, there's no point in having a global footprint. If you can't move projects around, you can't move customers around when that customer maybe wants to be somewhere else because of a tariff or something else. That agility is a key layer on top of that manufacturing expertise.

Do your customers here expect that? Are they customers that you're also manufacturing for elsewhere, or are there customers that are just in Costa Rica?

Martin Eisenhart (3:58)

Well, if we talk about Costa Rica, so all the customers we are serving out of Costa Rica, they are only doing the products here in Costa Rica.

But for some others, it's getting more and more important, especially for the European customers when it comes to the tariff situation, and then you need to find a way to be more local in the US, where the products has to be consumed finally. So then this is what we see more and more important, that we can transfer it quickly and thanks to ours, let's say, core systems all over the world. So that's easier for us to transfer.

Philip Spagnoli Stoten (4:35)

Yeah.

Martin Eisenhart (4:35)

And keep the quality on a high level.