New Danish electronics partnership challenges the Far East
3 April 2019
TKT Electronics and EKTOS open an electronics manufacturing unit in Ukraine with a focus on quality, traceability and agility.
It has, until now, been commonly accepted in the Danish electronics industry that it is only the Far East that can produce consumer electronics at competitive prices. Now, however, two long-standing partners have decided to establish an alternative.
The Danish electronics manufacturer TKT Electronics and the Danish-Ukrainian development and testing house EKTOS join forces and establish a joint factory unit, TECHTO Electronics. Under the headline “Agile Electronics Manufacturing” the factory challenges the Far East. This is done through a unique combination of traceability and agility, plus box-build in Ukraine. TECHTO Electronics is going to be headquartered in the Western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, right next to EKTOS’ local branch for hardware and software development.
Jesper Holst, director of EKTOS A/S and Tommy Korsholt, director of TKT Electronics, at TKT’s production site in Skive, Denmark. The production lines, processes, and quality management in Skive are copied to the new production unit in Ukraine – TECHTO Electronics.
Director of TKT Electronics Tommy Korsholt:
– At our factory in Skive we have for many years developed and refined an advanced quality and traceability system. Together with a very agile production, this means that we can process an urgent order within a few hours. The production lines, processes, and quality management in Skive are copied to the new production unit in Ukraine. Along with skilled, local technicians who are trained with our Danish employees, we can ensure high quality and prices that can easily compete with the Far East.
Tommy Korsholt, director of TKT Electronics and TECHTO Electronics
Director of EKTOS Jesper Holst adds:
Jesper Holst, director of EKTOS A/S and sales manager at TECHTO Electronics
– For EKTOS, the new joint venture means that we can now offer a unique one-stop shop that covers the entire chain from development to serial production. As a development and test house, EKTOS can handle the specification phase, development, test, and regulatory approval, and we can produce prototypes in small series. Via TECHTO Electronics we can now also offer our customers a handling of the subsequent serial production.
Production and development
TKT Electronics is an expert in electronics assembly and works as a subcontractor for a wide range of industries, including energy, medical, agriculture, and process industries. The company has 58 employees.
EKTOS is a development and test house with a staff of highly qualified hardware and software engineers, who both solve defined tasks within testing and certification and handle complete development projects, from idea generation and development to prototype production. EKTOS provides testing services accredited by DANAK, the national accreditation body in Denmark appointed by The Danish Safety Technology State Authority. The company has 80 employees in three locations in Denmark and two in Ukraine.
Scandinavian consumer electronics
The new factory is launched because of an increasing demand from especially Scandinavian customers in consumer electronics. TECHTO Electronics starts production in September, initially with 25 employees. The order book is already full so further hiring is expected next year.
Supplement
TECHTO Electronics focuses on products with a certain proportion of manual handling, typically consumer electronics, including box-build and delivery directly to the end customer. The new factory will serve as a supplement to TKT Electronics’ existing factory in Skive. While machines assemble 96 – 97 % of all the products in Skive, TECHTO Electronics will produce a significantly larger proportion of box-build.
The establishment of TECHTO Electronics will thus not result in the relocation of jobs from Denmark to Ukraine. Ukrainian salaries are on the same level as Chinese salaries and therefore TECHTO Electronics can still help the customers who need to produce items with more manual assembly. At the same time, the new factory unit will be able to handle the capacity challenges that both EKTOS and TKT Electronics expect in the near future.
