City of Fremont: Wellex has called Fremont home for over 30 years. Can you talk about why this location works for your business?

Tony Huang: Fremont works for Wellex for two main reasons, one being its ideal location. Fremont connects various parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the fact that about 70 percent of our corporate customers are in Silicon Valley makes it very convenient for product deliveries and pickups, as well as local meetings. In addition, we are now sandwiched between Highways 680 and 880 and minutes away from the brand new Warm Springs BART station, not to mention AC Transit bus stops.

The second reason is the affordability of living in the city of Fremont as compared to other cities in the East Bay, South Bay, and North Bay. About 20-30 percent of our staff are long-time employees who have lived close to the current Wellex location, as well as the original Grimmer location that we opened over 30 years ago.

Fremont: As a full-service electronics manufacturer, what is Wellex doing to stay competitive in a quickly changing industry?

TH: We’re staying competitive by emphasizing top-notch customer service. The key to this is the incredible amount of flexibility for customers. The company takes pride in learning with customers and following the latest technology. Also, Wellex provides design for manufacturability and test feedback for customers’ product development, which has proved to be of great value to clients. This helps customers eliminate any unexpected manufacturing issues after product launches. Additionally, we provide an extension of manufacturing services, which includes warehousing and reverse logistics. Last, but not least, by embracing Six Sigma and LEAN, Wellex’s continuous improvement program brings out cost competitiveness, which is the catalyst of the company’s competitive advantage over other full-service manufacturers in the fast-paced electronics industry.

Fremont: How does Wellex assure high quality for customers?

TH: Wellex has always been a quality-oriented company given its ISO certification and compliance with IPC610 quality standards. We ensure high quality to customers by developing a robust quality control plan for each product or project. This usually requires the optimization of the manufacturing processes followed by multiple inspections, tests, and QA audits. Wellex also considers the tracking of quality data very critical to error prevention. The corporation’s quality team analyzes and shares the data with the customer focus team members weekly so everyone is fully aware of the quality level for each customer and product. Of course, all of this is a direct result of Wellex’s consistent upgrades in technology process equipment and software as well as the company’s effective cross-training program.

Fremont: What technologies will be growth drivers for companies like Wellex in the next 2-5 years?

TH: While Wellex may not be able to compete with other larger ODM/CM competitors when it comes to technology that requires large capital and major resources, we can certainly focus on several specific areas in technology that are suitable for our size. An example would be green energy technology, which includes solar, LED, and power management. Other significant drivers of growth in the next 2-5 years include IoT (Internet of Thing) and Automotive Smart Car/Car Connected Solutions. This year, Wellex has started to work with IBM and Intel to promote IoT service support.

Fremont: Wellex is an important, and long-standing part of Fremont’s manufacturing ecosystem. What has remained the same, and what has changed?

TH: Throughout the company’s history, Wellex has made many changes to improve people skills, manufacturing technologies, quality, IT, and productivity given the nature of technology advancements. Wellex initially offered only PCB assembly service; now its services cover mechanical box build, system integration, logistics/reverse logistics, and off-shore manufacturing.

What has been set in stone since the beginning is the corporation’s exemplary customer service and on-time delivery. Because Wellex has succeeded in sustaining these main corporate pillars, other members of the Fremont manufacturing ecosystem have benefitted — especially the various startup companies that have drawn on our assembly and manufacturing services to help grow their businesses.