Every year during the Chinese New Year celebrations, keeping the electronics manufacturing supply chain going is a challenge, but this year ICAPE Group could rely on ICAPE-Trax, its new printed circuit board (PCB) factory in South Africa, to ensure smooth running of its operations.
Over the course of more than two decades, ICAPE Group has been bulding a strong network of factories and control processes to supply its customers with the best quality standards in the market, with a logistics chain optimised to deliver more than 32 million PCB and technical parts around the world, each month. However, this perfect plan becomes challenging over the Chinese New Year period. “The key for smooth running of operations is good preparation and it is recommended to anticipate orders to prevent disruptions in the supply chain,” according to an ICAPE statement. “This year, ICAPE Group offered a new option for its customers and it worked out very well.”
ICAPE Group’s 2021 acquisition of Trax, its first PCB factory in South Africa, was part of a two-pronged strategy. The first objective was to develop its activities on the African continent, which it sees as a promising sector and the second is being able to offer an additional production plant option to its customers, to prevent any shortages or other difficulties that might be faced in the Asian region.
The recent Chinese New Year celebration was handled with better efficiency this time around, as customers from Europe and the USA benefited from the South African plant, as Thomas Chea, ICAPE Group’s executive vice president for Asia Pacific and Africa explained: “Every year, we face the same situation with the New Year break in China. We are used to managing it, but with the addition of Trax in our organisation, it was a real upgrade for our customers. We were able to meet their requests with a shorter lead time compared to previous years, while ensuring the same level of control and quality thank to Trax, which benefits from ICAPE Group’s long experience and processes.”
This full-scale test was successfully passed and ICAPE is enthusiastic about what this will mean for its customers in the near future. “Theoretically, the project was interesting and we were able to enact it for the first time this year, with excellent results. This is very satisfying and we can now plan for next year with the highest level of confidence in being able to supply our customers without any disruption,” Chea concluded.
| Tel: | +27 21 712 5011 |
| Email: | anton.tait@icape-group.com |
| www: | https://www.icape-group.com/our-companies/trax/ |
| Articles: | More information and articles about ICAPE TRAX / ICAPE South Africa |
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