TVS Electronics: Being a class one supplier allows us to get govt orders: TVS Electronics EMS CBO

NSE-listed IT peripherals maker TVS Electronics’ Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) facility in Tumakuru, Karnataka that became operational ten months ago has been classified as a class one supplier of electronic components that allows them to get orders from the government and its agencies.

Sathya Doraisamy, chief business officer of EMS at the company told ET, “We have been classified as a class one supplier. If you are a class one manufacturer, this means we will be able to get more orders from the government and other agencies.”

The Chennai-headquartered company’s facility in Tumakuru has an advanced Surface Mount Technology (SMT) line and offers solutions like printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, product testing, box building, and supply chain management.

SMT is a technology that permits the assembling of electronic components on a PCB. The components are mounted directly on the surface of the board hence the name surface mount technology. Box building involves arranging PCBs and other custom cable components to form a complete system.

The Tumakuru facility spread over 65,000 sq feet in a 70-acre estate has a capacity to manufacture 1,50,000 components per hour and is currently utilising only about 20% of its capacity to cater to captive demand.

“We have three business units: product solution group (PSG), customer support services (CSS) and EMS. Two thirds of our revenue comes from PSG and one third of our revenue comes from CSS. EMS contributes to PSG currently. Once we get external customers, then we will see revenue from EMS which we hope will start from next fiscal year,” he said.

“With certain customers, we have done the NPI and will be getting into mass production. With other customers, we have already quoted and are expecting a purchase order. We are working with both Indian and international customers, and more than half are Indian,” he added.NPI stands for New Product Introduction (NPI), which is a process for taking an idea for a product and turning it into a fully-functioning, reproducible product. In the electronics industry, NPI is particularly important for the development of PCBs.

The company’s focus will be on IT, IT peripherals, consumer and automotive electronics, he said, at the company’s facility in Tumakuru, on Monday.

The Tumakuru factory was set up in 1986 and currently manufactures label printers, barcode scanners, thermal printers, infrared thermometers, pulse oximeters, webcams, currency counters and detectors, among other products for retail, banking, shipping and logistics companies.

The factory also makes smart speakers for a fintech firm and handles customer care calls for consumer electronics, appliances and a marketplace platform.

The company made the pivot from a product company to an end-to-end solutions company, Doraisamy said. The company has Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese and Chinese partners for its thermal and barcode printers.

“In Bengaluru alone there are more than 250 EMS players. We are an end-to-end manufacturing service provider who designs other customers’ products in addition to our products,” he said.