Jumpstarting the growth engine

Flex serves customers across wide-ranging industries, and its expertise and innovations duly reflect this breadth. From smart consumer wearables to green energy management systems, innovations are born out of Flex's multiple sites throughout China, including the Shanghai Design Innovation Center (SDIC), its Zhuhai campus and the design center in Jiading. Some of the innovations being developed are mission-critical to healthcare and communication while others serve specialized needs. This year, for instance, these teams designed numerous breakthrough devices, including a 5G module for portable smart devices, a cloud computing platform based on the world's fastest processor and an advanced modular robotics control system that programs the robot's movements. On the other end of the spectrum is a "smart cane" system designed for the visually impaired, integrating binocular cameras, AI-powered visual recognition, sensors to detect obstacles, and electric brakes among other features.

Last year, the SDIC team collaborated with Baidu to develop a Level 4 autonomous valet parking system, among the first of this kind in mass production. With this system, a vehicle can autonomously pick up and unload passengers at a preset zone, identify a suitable spot to self-park and then be summoned by the driver to return to the pick-up zone.

To be sure, Flex is working with car makers and automotive suppliers throughout the world to accelerate the progress towards not only fully autonomous driving but also vehicle electrification and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). In China, the company has secured multiple ADAS compute co-design programs while a collaboration with Chinese EV manufacturer NIO garnered the companies the prestigious Innovation Partner Pace Award in 2019.

"Do the right thing always"

In revamping Flex's growth strategy, Advaithi also oversaw the overhaul of the company's mission and values to elevate their social and environmental impact.

"I strongly believe that a great work culture will underpin our sustained success. Our core value — do the right thing always — will guide our decisions and behavior. Our purpose isn't simply to build products: we want to build products that are good for the world and do this in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible way," Advaithi explained.

The company's portfolio is rife with green projects like energy conservation products including smart controllers that can automatically switch the streetlights on and off by sensing the environment. Healthcare is another major focus area for Flex. The company's facilities in Gushu, Suzhou and Shanghai produce complex medical systems for imaging and diagnosis as well as consumer health devices like insulin pumps, glucose meters and drug delivery devices.

One area of Flex's strategic focus in China is to lend its expertise to support the National Medical Product Administration's mandate to improve the country's healthcare delivery. To this end, Flex is establishing partnerships with both global and local medical product registrants to bring their devices to market under China's?Market Authorization Holder (MAH) system. Keen to serve the world's second largest and fastest growing major medical market, Flex has taken initial steps to take advantage of this new policy by, for example, partnering with Smith+Nephew to manufacture surgical imaging products in Shanghai.

"Whether it's healthcare or data centers, we are no stranger to innovating continuously to exceed the expectations of the end market," says TY Lai, who is responsible for Flex's manufacturing operations in Asia. "We've been doing this for more than half a century. The difference is today the speed of business and pace of innovation has increased dramatically. But Flex has the scale and footprint to make things happen quickly."

Ramping up investments

To help its customers bring their advanced products to market, Flex has made sizable investments to boost its capabilities. Last year, it launched a reliability lab to help test the quality of highly complex products, adding to its ecosystem of specialized labs.

More recently, Flex completed the construction of an over-the-air (OTA) chamber designed to test the performance of 5G active antenna and massive MIMO (mMIMO), a technology that increases a network's capacity, coverage and efficiency. This Finland-based, multimillion-dollar project enables Flex to help its communication and network equipment customers validate their equipment's requirements and performance as part of a wide-ranging set of services offered through the company's design-led radio programs, adding to a number of OTA test chambers that Flex operates throughout the world. 

In bolstering its offerings, Flex recognizes that technology is only part of the equation. "As we continue to shift our mix to higher value businesses, technology investments will be critical," Advaithi said. "Yet, equally important is the continued investment in our workforce to uplevel their skills and help them succeed in our increasingly data-driven and automated factories. As we see payoffs by pivoting towards automation, connectivity, and smart technologies, we want to bring our colleagues along so that everyone benefits from this technology-driven economy."