Sep 03, 2013 
The Würth Elektronik Group has been in Asia for over 13 years, where it has established several local businesses, manufacturing fa-cilities and its own Quality and Design Center. Würth Elektronik has now opened an office for Circuit Board Technology in Shenzhen, in the Guangdong region (China). With this move, the company is not only expanding its business area but also the list of advantages for customers: minimised risk, because Würth Elektronik remains a partner throughout the product's life cycle, from prototypes and samples to production runs. Larger volumes and other technologies can now also be provided.
"Asian manufacturing is not a substitute for our German factories", says Jürgen Klohe, managing director of the WE Group, "it’s a logical extension of our portfolio. There are several reasons why we chose this office loca-tion in China. Firstly, the manufacturing of PCBs in China meets Würth’s high quality standards. On the other hand, our associate companies have long been based in China and we already have an efficient network there in terms of infrastructure and resources. In addition, we already have a highly productive laboratory there that operates to German standards."
Four Asian partners will expand the production capacity of Würth Elektronik. These Chinese partner factories were chosen using strict criteria. All factories are strategically designed to export and are certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, TS 16949 and UL (for USA and Canada).
"When choosing a factory, we strategically determined which technologies and which volumes these plants could and should deliver for us", explains Denis Giba, managing director of WE Printed Circuit Boards. "These crite-ria are defined in the offer software, so that when certain technological pa-rameters are entered, only factories that are approved for the technology, in relation to the requested volume, come up."
Quality assurance is a particularly important matter in Asian manufactur-ing. "Our customers can rely on Würth’s usual high quality of printed cir-cuit boards", says Benjamin Klingenberg, director of "Asia Sourcing". This starts with the selection of factories. "All partners have multiple branches, but we only use certain branches that we have audited and approved." Residential Engineers ensure high quality standards on site in the facto-ries. They conduct the manufacturer's quality assurance procedures and production processes and then examine the printed circuit boards in ac-cordance with WE quality standard criteria. In the Quality Design Center (Longgang) random checks are carried out by Würth specialists. "For samples, multilayer products, strategically important printed circuit boards or complex assemblies, we have our own high-quality equipment with which the printed circuit boards can be tested on site", Klingenberg ex-plains the QA process. "We can assure our customers that, before leaving the factory, these printed circuit boards are inspected by internal WE technicians in accordance with our WE quality standards, which in turn makes us a very uncomplicated partner to work with."
Würth Elektronik bridges both the spatial and cultural distance with a structured supply chain. "Our customer always has a contact person, ei-ther in the office or in the field. WE Asia Sourcing bridges the gap to Chi-na with locations in Germany and in China. Our colleagues in Germany are responsible for administrative operations. Our colleagues in Asia know the language and culture and ensure that European or, better yet, WE quality standards are met," says Klingenberg. "With the in-house logistics company, Würth Logistik, WE consolidates the product flows of individual business areas, thus achieving optimal delivery conditions."
Würth Elektronik CBT is the leading PCB manufacturer in Europe with production sites in Niedernhall, Rot am See and Schopfheim and produces PCBs from standard printed circuit boards to modern complex technologies. The PCB specialist provides application-specific solutions across all technologies as well as new technology developments, for example in the area of embedding active and passive components. The comprehensive portfolio ranges from double-sided PCBs and multilayer PCBs in all popular technologies to sophisticated circuit boards such as HDI, Rigid-flex versions and heatsink technologies.
