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00:00:01.280Hello, I'm Philip Stoughton.
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00:00:05.679I'm here at Zolna in Costa Rica and I'm joined by Martin from Zolna.
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00:00:10.960Martin, you run the global operations side of the business, the electronics side of the electronics.
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00:00:11.679Yeah.
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00:00:14.960How does Costa Rica fit in that global picture?
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00:00:20.079Because actually having a joined up approach to manufacturing globally is essential.
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00:00:23.679Well Costa Rica is a state-of-the-art facility, I would say.
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00:00:26.399So it's in the best cost region, which is important for us.
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00:00:32.719Having something for the US market, but it's not a pure low-cost facility, you know, so that's not our style.
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00:00:50.479So we started 10 years ago with the with the Costa Costa Rica operations, and uh well, little by little it developed a real strategic one within the group, especially as I said, so for uh higher complex products uh in the medical market, in the industry, but also in the aerospace.
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00:00:52.640Yeah, that's what it is.
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00:00:59.200Yeah, and when I look at EMS over the last over the last 10 years that you've been here, it's become more and more sophisticated.
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00:01:12.560Customers are really trying to build strategic partnerships with their EMS um partners to ensure you can take care of supply chain, help with design, manufacturing, aftermarket services.
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00:01:18.560How do you keep up with that sophistication with a global footprint and in somewhere like Costa Rica?
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00:01:19.920Well, that's a good question.
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00:01:29.200So, as you said, so it's even more important that we that we don't only have a manufacturing, so that's just one part of the of the of the whole situation.
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00:01:37.760But 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.
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00:01:40.879We have one MEA system, we have one traceability system.
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00:01:46.879So that that helps us to really to maintain the process at the same level all over the globe.
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00:01:58.159And also we have some uh some well some departments serving for on a global area, not only on a site level, so like a global procurement, like supply chain and technology.
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00:02:03.200So this this all together makes us able to keep the limb high.
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00:02:09.199Yeah, I think what's interesting when I look at the history of Zona, most of what you've developed has been sites you've built yourself.
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00:02:18.639There are a few acquisitions in there out of necessity, but generally it's been that organic uh builder facility, and you've been able to do that pretty much with the same equipment set.
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00:02:20.479You already mentioned the same software.
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00:02:29.840How important is that to you from a point of view of managing all the facilities, but also by to create some kind of global agility across the different sites?
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00:02:38.159It is absolutely mandatory, I would say, because that that helps us really to have a good control over all the sites we have worldwide.
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00:02:43.599So we have the same SAPS set, so that helps us to have the full transparency in the supply chain.
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00:02:50.000We have a global MES system to benchmark the sites between and keep them on a high level.
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00:02:53.039Um yeah, that's important for us, right?
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00:02:56.800So we we we need to maintain that and it's becoming more and more important.
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00:03:15.120But on the other side, so all the geopolitical situation in the future drives us also to to 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.
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00:03:16.800Yeah, yeah, that's essentially.
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00:03:33.039And I think working across those, you know, 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.
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00:03:40.560That agility is a is a key layer on top of that manufacturing expertise.
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00:03:44.000Do your customers here expect that?
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00:03:50.319Are they customers that you're also manufacturing for elsewhere, or are there customers that are just in Costa Rica?
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00:04:00.080Well, 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.
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00:04:14.319But for some others, it's getting more and more important, especially for the European customers when it comes to the tariff situation, and then we need to find a way to be more local in the US where the product uh has to be consumed finally.
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00:04:27.279So then this is what we see more and more important that we can transfer it quickly, and then and thanks to our let's say uh um core systems all over the world, so that that's easier for us to transfer.
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00:04:32.720Yeah, and keep the quality on a high level, yeah, keep it online, maintain that high level across everything.
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00:04:42.720Um, and when when you think of the way the industry is developing, use of AI, all those new practices, and I know you're already using AI in supply chain and other areas.
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00:04:45.439Do you do that on a global basis?
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00:04:48.079Are there specific centers of excellence?
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00:04:52.319Are there areas where you maybe pilot projects and then spread them around?
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00:04:53.120Exactly.
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00:05:10.319So we do some pilots at the moment in Europe mainly, but also we started the pilot in the Americas and Mobidas in the Silicon LVD5 facility because we have high costs over there, and then we we we figure out how the agents, the AI agents, can help us in the in the supply chain work and the administrative task.
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00:05:11.759So that's what we're currently doing.
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00:05:15.600But at the same time, and this is also important for Costa Rica.
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00:05:27.120Costa Rica is not only a manufacturing site for us anymore because we have really high qualified people here, we have a high motivated team, and that enables us to start with a shared service center.
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00:05:35.600So we started last year with a shared service center, supporting the US uh uh sites mainly with uh supply chain work but also engineering work.
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00:05:41.839And what we what we always do here is test fixtures, so all the the equipment needed for the production.
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00:05:44.240Yeah, this is all that is done here.
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00:05:48.399So that brings Costa Rica to another layer, I would say.
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00:05:56.240Yeah, and when you think forward of how the EMS industry is likely to develop over the next five years, it's such a fast-moving market at the moment.
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00:06:01.600Where do you see Zolna standing out and being different to other companies?
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00:06:05.279Um, and how important is Costa Rica in that?
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00:06:09.839Well, so what will be different in the future?
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00:06:22.959I think that the all the the globalization, I would say, drives the US industry um towards a more q so in in different regions, you know.
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00:06:30.399So so we we need to have to set up in the different regions, and uh and we need to be a little bit more independent in the in the region.
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00:06:32.560That's what we started in in early this year.
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00:06:43.199So we have a new organization structure where we differentiate in in the different regions, so we have not no longer one global structure, so all over the globe.
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00:06:46.000So we have the Americas, we have Europe, we have Asia.
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00:06:57.120Um because we think that's more important because of regulatory things and also some other circumstances, which drives us to that deglobalization.
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00:07:07.199And this is uh why I think it's important to have a global structure, global guidelines, but being able to act a little bit more independently in the regions.
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00:07:09.839So this is what I think will be important in the future.
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00:07:23.519That's really interesting because it feels very much like your change in organizational structure actually reflects the change in the environment we're seeing in the supply chain where people are thinking how do we how do we act more regionally?
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00:07:28.319How do we make sure we're supplying product from from the region in the region?
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00:07:30.079Uh and it really reflects that.
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00:07:31.920Martin, thanks so much for talking to me.
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00:07:34.079Pleasure to chat and look forward to talking again soon.
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00:07:34.399Thank you.
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00:07:34.560Thank you.
