Advanced Turnkey Manufacturing vs. Contract Manufacturing

This post originally appeared on owensdesign.com. Owens Design is now part of AIR.

In our technologically complex world, there is a growing need for customized manufacturing services to meet the ever-expanding needs of emerging technology industries. This has created a variety of manufacturing services catering to specific product and project needs.

Today, we’ll be discussing two manufacturing services that stand on opposing sides of the manufacturing spectrum – advanced turnkey manufacturing and contract manufacturing. We’ll introduce you to the benefits of each and help you determine which service is best suited for your needs.

Contract Manufacturing

Contract manufacturing (CM) put simply, is an outsourced, large-scale manufacturing service for companies that don’t have in-house manufacturing resources.

In the introductory stages of contract manufacturing, a customer will approach a CM with a complete design and manufacturing package. This is a crucial differentiator between a CM and a turnkey manufacturer since a CM only provides the manufacturing service and no design. This reduces the CM costs, and the price to the customer. Before a customer or prospect approaches the CM, a thorough test of the design must be completed to ensure that the design is fully functional. A controlled build of the design must also be done to validate that the documentation package will allow the CM to correctly bid and manufacture the design. These tasks require the customer to put in significant work before the design is completely ready to be taken to the CM’s assembly line. Significant work, money, and time are invested before a project is green-lighted with the CM.

Contract manufacturers are interested in high-volume manufacturing; meaning that certain customers could not work with them if they do not meet the manufacturer’s order minimum. If the CM facility is located offshore in a low cost region, which is usually the case, then there is the additional risk to the customer’s intellectual property.

Advanced Turnkey Manufacturing

Advanced turnkey manufacturers handle not only the manufacturing but also the design, engineering and manufacturing documentation for emerging tech and other industries. Turnkey manufacturers take the project from the initial concept or design phase to market-ready when clients don’t have the means to produce a comprehensive design.

This service can save customers money, provide a fast turnaround and produce reliable world-class designs because turnkey manufacturers have a complete, knowledgeable and highly experienced engineering and operations staff on hand, under one roof and ready to be applied to the customer’s project. All the customer needs to provide is a clear set of requirements, and some regular guidance through the project to ensure the optimal outcome. Working with a turnkey manufacturer, the customer has no need for an equipment design, manufacturing documentation or equipment manufacturing staff or facilities.

Owens Design Advanced Turnkey Manufacturing Solutions

Owens Design is a leading turnkey manufacturer that provides clients with two critical services:

New product design development based on customer requirements, from concept through engineering, documentation and manufacturing
Helping clients find gaps within their current design, correcting those gaps and then producing a comprehensive and efficient manufacturing process

Owens Design is located in Silicon Valley which is home to a high density of technology companies that have used our engineering and manufacturing services, furthering our extensive expertise. We specialize in low to medium-volume design and manufacturing of custom, semi-custom and system integration manufacturing equipment and are efficient at shortening time-to-market and reducing risk.

When working with a turnkey manufacturer such as Owens Design, we develop custom manufacturing and testing procedures whereas a CM requires those to be done beforehand. Owens Design supports changes, upgrades and continuous improvement with a consistent team of engineers providing thorough upgrades throughout the life of the equipment.