Retraining and flexibility enable EMS to thrive

THE electronics manufacturing services business is very competitive and requires a high degree of agility and flexibility to survive.

As far as Gruppo EMS Inc. is concerned, EMS Group CEO and chairman Perry Ferrer told BUSINESSMIRROƔ in an interview that retraining the workforce has been the key to thrive and survive.

Ferrer pointed out that the culture of retraining is quite pervasive in EMS’S DNA as it has been ingrained to all the workers of the company from the managers to the people in the production line.

“When we started EMS, we were only assembling optical disk drives for compact discs [CDS]. Imagine, we have to retrain people because technology has been rapidly changing. If we did not train, I would not be talking to you right now,” Ferrer explained.

Further, Ferrer said the culture of retraining is very strong and the employees are quite aware because their jobs would be at stake. “Retraining goes hand in hand with sound management and sound culture,” Ferrer explains.

According to Ferrer, retraining enabled the company to hurdle the challenges in its 20-year of existence. Moreover, Ferrer said flexibility also helped EMS overcome the turbulent periods of the global economy.

Aside from developing the cultural training, the workers have to be trained to be multi- skilled,” Ferrer added.

The move gave a positive result as EMS was able to turn around the business in a faster time as compared to the other players in the market. “Training makes ordinary people produce extraordinary results,” said Ferrer.

“With the training that we have provided to our people, we were able to cope with the changes that have rapidly occurred in the technologies and products that we produced,” Ferrer pointed out.

Gruppo EMS, a 100 percent Filipinoowned provider of innovative and cost-effective manufacturing services including human resource solutions, has gone a long way since it was founded in February 2014.

It has also deployed some of its personnel overseas upon the request of its clients in Japan, Right now, EMS has deployed over 1, 500 personnel in Japan, Malaysia, Hungary, India and Malta. Jobs being handled by Filipinos range from forklift operators, assembly people, software engineers and machine operators.

This year, EMS plans to send 500 to 600 workers to address the labor shortage in the countries that are experiencing such.