It is rare for any company to clear every award available in a single tier at an awards ceremony. Yet, that’s just what happened last year on October 22 in Chicago, Illinois, at the CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Service Excellence Awards when the VEXOS team went home with all seven awards in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers category for companies with revenues between $101 and $500 million. The awards included recognition for the company’s dependability and timely delivery, flexibility and ease of doing business, overall satisfaction, manufacturing quality, technology, responsiveness, and value for money.
As a small but powerful global leader in award-winning electronic manufacturing services (EMS), specializing in end-to-end supply chain management solutions, VEXOS has a significant responsibility serving large brands during a time of major geopolitical shifts. While EMS forms the mainstay of its capabilities, the company also supplies custom material solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and new emerging technology companies.
Despite inevitable challenges along the way, VEXOS continues to provide its customers with the best and latest technology alongside sophisticated service and impressive supply chain efficiency, growing its capabilities in smart grids and infrastructure, communications, computing, and security.
A specialist in serving the medical, automotive, military, and aerospace industries, the company also handles the entire electronic product life cycle on behalf of its clients, a service that significantly enhances ease of ownership. This approach includes value engineering services for product development as well as prototyping and new product introduction (NPI), product evolution, maturity, and end-of-life phases.
It comes as no surprise, then, that VEXOS is well-represented across North America, with next-generation facilities providing product support and direct points of contact to ensure that all customers are well taken care of.
Serving a broad range of clients from its facilities in Markham, Ontario; LaGrange, Ohio; Vancouver, Washington; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Dongguan, China, VEXOS expanded its North American presence last year to include a state-of-the-art 40,000-square-foot fabrication footprint in Juarez, Mexico to improve and maintain overall company efficiencies. To achieve such growth, the VEXOS team has worked tirelessly to build its overall brand and its capacity. The company also welcomed ControlTek in Vancouver, Washington to the group in September 2023 and earlier this year, it announced the completion of expansions to this facility, which includes a ValuLine™ cleanroom, a fourth surface mount technology (SMT) line, and Inovaxe custom storage.
Around the same time, VEXOS announced that its facility in Ho Chi Minh City became fully operational following an 8,000-square-foot expansion focused on box builds and assembly processes. The company also improved its SMT lines for enhanced capacity. This facility’s overall EMS operations are now the company’s largest in scale.
Moving its Dongguan facility from an older building to a nearby property near the Guangdong technology hub, VEXOS now also provides more specialized services to expanding tech firms, putting itself further down the path of expansion.
The company’s latest addition, in Mexico, is closely linked to its Markham outfit, which supported the facility in acquiring its ISO 9001 certification to ensure ongoing, optimal quality in everything from outstanding box build assembly to PCBA manufacturing and testing, which VEXOS is so trusted for. This certification, says Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, Cyril Fernandes, is directly reflective of vigorous growth in the aerospace industry.
Alongside increased business from this industry, the company also reports a rise in business from Fortune 500 companies, which, of course, holds tremendous promise for its own fortunes.
Initially launching two SMT lines, the Mexican facility now offers four lines since its launch a year and a half ago, and this is set to grow even further soon. “We do think that we will get to six SMT lines within the next six to 12 months—a tripling of capacity in 18 months,” says Fernandes. “We have weathered the [geopolitical] storm quite effectively,” he continues, highlighting the facility’s impressive growth since its opening during trying times and its role in achieving such resilience.
To further boost the entire company’s efficiency, with the Juarez facility as his main focus, VEXOS announced the appointment of Hadi Farashahi as Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence in early September this year.
Another plan to improve efficiency has seen VEXOS consider its processes in detail to identify where improvements can be implemented to further ease the customer experience while enhancing productivity. “Our global footprint provides our customers a lot of flexibility in terms of where they can have their products manufactured to provide the most effective landed cost for their goods,” Fernandes explains, illustrating the company’s need for such strategic measures.
In the pursuit of continuous improvement, VEXOS’ Vancouver facility collaborates with service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB), CTEK2, to develop ‘set aside’ capabilities in response to the needs of various United States government department tenders that are typically reserved for minority-owned businesses. “As another opportunity for growth, we’re leveraging our core skills to enable us to provide these types of services to companies that can engage with the U.S. government through this particular set aside,” Fernandes says of this latest initiative.
“We’re very excited to be partnered with CTEK2,” seconds Erin Fortin, Director of Marketing and Strategic Analytics.
Taking another look at its Asian facilities, the company is also developing ways of expanding its commodity management solutions. These are custom commodities that it supplies to customers. Leveraging economies of scale, VEXOS provides significant savings on sought-after materials from trusted partners with whom it has had decades-long working relationships. Such products include custom-printed circuit boards, plastics, metals, and more.
Based on this model, VEXOS is in the process of setting up centers of excellence in collaboration with distributors in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where commodity experts provide guidance on materials and engineering possibilities. This service allows smaller companies access to big-buyer prices alongside solid quality—a combination that would otherwise remain reserved for large buyers with deep pockets. In this way, VEXOS is empowering smaller firms in meaningful ways, contributing to the global economy and driving change in traditionally exclusive industrial playing fields.
When it comes to the team that keeps this formidable force in motion, Fernandes’ message is positive: “Just continue with the approach that we’re taking. Continue driving the value proposition that we have, which is enabling us to grow business organically and inorganically,” he says. In the same breath, Fernandes underscores how COVID-19 brought about a lasting transformation in the company’s approach to supply chain management, changing how it does business for good.
Today, VEXOS’s robust supply chain is another key benefit to the company and its customers. “Our team is very capable,” says Kulveen Ahuja, Marketing and Communications Specialist. “With the tools that we have, I think our supply chain team is doing a fabulous job.”
As VEXOS continues its global expansion, Fernandes hopes for the company to retain its unique character—one of warmth and camaraderie. While this leader is open about the challenges of a team spread across the planet, he points out that online platforms do help bridge the gap to a large extent. To cultivate a sense of organizational unity, the company introduced an operational excellence program to help guide teams toward synergy in effective ways. “We have a really strong management presence and communication with the global team,” says Fortin. “I think that’s an important part of our success.”
With changing horizons ever present, VEXOS maintains its sense of resilience as it continuously adapts in the face of global transience. What remains unchanged, however, is its promise of unwavering commitment—commitment to quality, evolution, and service excellence.
