Electronics and assembly
AI automation for electronics suppliers and assemblers
Component makers, cable and harness shops, plastics and metal parts suppliers, PCB assembly and contract manufacturers. The lines are tooled. The office still re-keys supplier replies, rebuilds the shortage list and spreads every engineering change by email. That office is where I start.
- $107.75BVietnam's computer and electronics exports in 2025, the country's largest export group.Vietnam Customs, January 2026 (preliminary)
- 64%of electronics manufacturers report limited parts or longer lead times.Global Electronics Association, August 2026
- Engineering changesA part-number change has to reach purchasing, the floor and quality at once.
- $14 to $54+what one purchase order costs to process, before anyone chases it.APQC procurement benchmarks, April 2026
Who this is for
Built for electronics suppliers and assemblers
Electronics suppliers and assemblers: component and part makers, cables and harnesses, plastics and metal parts, PCB assembly and small electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. Typically fifty to a few hundred people, where the owner or director decides and the office runs on an ERP, the inbox and a shortage list in a spreadsheet.
The work you do
Builds to your customers' BOMs and approved vendor lists, with engineering changes, last-time buys and allocation shaping every week. Samples, first articles and customer approvals before volume.
The people you serve
Brands and contract manufacturers in Vietnam, the US and beyond, who send POs, forecasts and change notices, and ask for traceability and origin evidence on demand.
The mess
What lands on the desk
- A customer change notice swaps part numbers after purchasing has already ordered the old reels.
- Supplier confirmations arrive partial and late under allocation, and someone re-keys every one.
- The shortage list is rebuilt by hand in a spreadsheet every morning.
- An RFQ waits while someone cleans the BOM and chases distributor prices.
- A customer audit, a return or a US importer asks for lot traceability, and it is pieced together from three systems.
As of October 2026: most Vietnamese goods pay a 12.5% US Section 301 duty, while the main electronics lines enter the US duty-free; US Customs expects detailed bills of materials and supplier mapping in forced-labour reviews; and since 1 February 2026, Vietnamese customs expects material-use figures traced to production records. I do not give trade or customs advice; I take the re-typing out of the paperwork your team already does.Source: Greenberg Traurig, 24 July 2026; CSIS, 10 September 2026; Troutman Pepper Locke, 2 February 2026; Circular 121/2025/TT-BTC as reported by Tạp chí Kinh tế Tài chính, 3 March 2026.
The pattern
The same work, without the re-typing
Today
- The change landsA customer ECN or an internal ECO, with one person.
- Someone works out what it touchesOpen POs, stock on the shelf, work orders already released.
- Emails and walking overPurchasing, the floor and quality hear at different times.
- The system catches up days laterMeanwhile the old parts are still on order.
With the automation
- The change is read as it arrivesPart numbers, quantities and the effective date pulled out.
- Matched to open POs, stock and work in progressEverything it touches is listed, with what changes for each.
- A short note drafted for each personPurchasing, the floor, quality, with the suggested action.
- A person approvesRecords update the same day; open items stay flagged until done.
An example process, not a client story. The workshop decides which process comes first.
The build
What I would build first
Engineering changes that reach everyone
A change is matched to open POs, stock and work orders, and purchasing, the floor and quality hear about it the same day.
Supplier confirmations and a shortage list that updates itself
Replies read and matched to the PO line; only the exceptions reach a buyer, and the shortage list is current every morning.
RFQ intake with BOM clean-up
Part numbers matched and supplier prices collected before a person sets the price, so quotes stop waiting on the clean-up.
A clear-to-build pack before each meeting
Which builds have every part confirmed, which do not, and why, ready before planning sits down.
Traceability and origin data, assembled
Lot, date-code and supplier data pulled together from what you already record, including the material-use figures Vietnamese customs now asks for.
You do not need all of these. One process comes first, chosen with your team, and a person approves everything that changes a record or reaches a buyer.
Do the math
What would one process give back?
Updating the BOM, checking open POs and stock, and telling purchasing, the floor and quality. Example figures, not a benchmark; count your own.
Type your own figure. Only hours are shown until you do.
Adjust my assumptions
48 hours is the legal maximum week; about 2,312 hours worked a year after leave and public holidays. On-costs: 21.5% insurance + 2% union fee, on salary up to 50.6m VND a month.
Cycle time
Stock (optional)
Quotes won (freight follow-up)
35 hours back a month
9 people-weeks a year (0,18 of a full-time person)
Request to done:
Add a monthly salary to see this in money.
30 x 70 minutes saved / 60 = 35 hours a month.
This is an illustration with your numbers. A sit-in measures the real ones.
Link copied. It carries your numbers, never your salary.
Opened from a shared link. Salaries are never shared, so add your own to see money.
How this works, and where the defaults come from
- Hours a month = volume x (minutes today minus minutes after) / 60. People-weeks = hours a year / the standard week.
- Money is a band: the ceiling counts every freed hour at the loaded cost of the person; expected counts half of it, because not every freed minute becomes useful work; cautious takes a further 20% off.
- Stock: the yearly carrying saving is counted; the one-time cash released is shown on its own and never added in.
- Payback is shown as a budget: the most a one-off fix could cost and still pay back within 12 or 24 months. No prices.
- Every volume and minute figure is an example. Replace it with yours.
Sources, last checked 12 October 2026:
- Forrester Total Economic Impact method: 50% productivity recapture, 10 to 20% risk adjustment (this study was commissioned by Microsoft)
- APQC open standards benchmark: cycle time from requisition to PO, goods, median 2.0 days
- Carrying cost rule of thumb, 15 to 25% of stock value a year, citing ASCM guidance (MRPeasy, a software vendor, January 2025)
- Freightos (a freight marketplace) survey of the top 20 forwarders, 2018: manual quoting averaged 57 hours from enquiry to quote
- Vietnam employer social, health and unemployment insurance (21.5%) and union fee (2%), statutory rates
- Rodl and Partner, Vietnam statutory base salary and insurance cap from 1 July 2026
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employer costs for employee compensation, June 2026
- GOV.UK, rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
- GOV.UK, workplace pension contributions
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025
Your systems
Works with what you already run
The ERP stays. So do the spreadsheets people trust, the on-site server and the inbox. I connect what you already run instead of replacing it, and build on the data you already hold.
A new ERP is rarely step one. Clean data for bills of materials, routings and capacity usually is. When it is time to choose a system, I give you an independent view of buying versus building for that one process, before you sign anything. I do not sell or resell software.
Never automated
- Approving a purchase
- Pricing to buyers
- Choosing a supplier
- Compliance sign-off
How it starts
One process first, then the pattern repeats
- A short workshopYour department leads, AI in plain terms, everyone's repetitive work in one place, and one process chosen.
- A sit-inI sit with that department, time the steps and map what the process costs today.
- A fixed priceA recommendation, off the shelf or build, and a fixed price for the first build, or a recommendation not to build.
Then the pattern repeats. The first process proves the value and shows how the business really runs; the next ones reuse what was built, so the work spreads across departments instead of starting from zero each time.
Proof, honestly
What I have built so far
My published builds are in recruitment and travel, not manufacturing: a matching system that scores every application with its reasoning shown, and an intake system that turns messy enquiry email into clean records. The pattern is the one a factory office needs: messy inbound in, clean records out, a person checking.
Fair questions
Asked before, answered honestly
We already run an ERP and an MES. Where would you start?
In the hand-offs between them and the inbox: engineering changes, supplier replies, the shortage list. No new system by default; when one is the right answer, I will say so, and I do not sell or resell any.
Can engineering changes really reach purchasing and the floor the same day?
That is what I would build: the change is read when it arrives, matched to open POs, stock and work orders, and a person approves before anything updates, so everyone affected can hear the same day.
Our customers' BOMs and drawings are confidential. Where does the data go?
Where we agree it goes, build by build. Some of it can stay on your own server, nothing is sent anywhere you have not agreed to, and your customer agreements and NDAs come first.
Our systems are set by head office. Can you still help?
Often, yes: the local office work around those systems, such as supplier follow-up, planning packs and the data behind customs reports, is usually outside what head office covers.
Can you help with traceability and origin paperwork?
I can assemble the data you already hold, at the traceability level your customer agreed, and flag what is missing. The filing and the sign-off stay with you and your broker; I do not give customs advice.
Have you built for an electronics manufacturer before?
Not yet, and I will not pretend otherwise. My published builds are in recruitment and travel. The pattern is the same: messy inbound turned into clean records, with a person checking, and the work starts by measuring your process before anything is priced.
Tell me which process eats the most hours. If AI will not help, I will say so.
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, so I can work on-site in Vietnam, and remotely with the US and everywhere else.