Connecting right

Hardly anyone notices them, and yet they’re everywhere; indeed, without them, modern life as we know it would be inconceivable: these electronic connectors are indispensable in getting everything to function wherever flows of electricity or data occur. Whether within electronics components in the automotive, communications, transportation, medical, or aerospace sectors, no lights, motors, computers, or monitors would be able to work without safe, reliable connectors. There would be no internet, no telephones, no cars, no refrigerators, no pacemakers.

The list of affected electronics components and their applications is almost endless. Founded in 1956 on the fourth floor of an apartment building in Adelberg, southern Germany, ERNI Electronics GmbH detected this steady rise in demand, took on the competition, and is now one of the world’s leading manufacturers and service providers of electronic connector solutions: delivering reliable and robust connections, cable assemblies, cable housings, and much more. The three-person company has long since become a hidden champion. Headquartered in Switzerland, ERNI International AG today has more than 1,300 employees in 40 offices and cutting-edge manufacturing sites around the world.

As part of ERNI’s global expansion, it created ERNI Asia Holding Pt. Ltd. in 1996 and set up headquarters in Singapore. This is the electronics specialist’s hub for all its activities in the region, including 24 sales offices and two sales organizations for China and Japan. In addition, the company has two manufacturing sites in China and Thailand. ERNI Asia’s structure focuses primarily on the markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Since July 2017, the company has been working closely with DACHSER to achieve the most effective and efficient connection possible to its markets. The emphasis here is on intra-Asian logistics as well as seamless connections to Europe. At the moment, for instance, each week 10 to 20 air freight pallets of products manufactured in Germany make their way from Stuttgart to Singapore. From there they are distributed to customers in Asia and Southeast Asia. ERNI has also entrusted DACHSER Air & Sea Logistics with its exports from Taiwan to Asian markets. Furthermore, the logistics provider has assumed responsibility for warehousing in Hong Kong with a variety of value-added services—including quality control, labeling, and relabeling. It also organizes overland transports from there to the Chinese mainland. In air freight, ERNI’s focus is on particularly valuable, fragile, or urgently required electronic products and components. DACHSER helps the company by arranging pre-consolidated air freight from Germany to Singapore and from other European locations to Asia.

“We made DACHSER our preferred logistics partner because we wanted to take advantage of its global network and of how it can adjust to our processes,” says Dr. Khor Aik Cheow, Deputy Managing Director Asia Pacific, ERNI Asia Holding Pte. Ltd. Frank Stadus, Managing Director, DACHSER Singapore, says, “Our strengths for the electronics industry are process management and operational excellence in warehousing, value-added services, and distribution. This has a positive effect on ERNI’s logistics balance sheet.”

Logistics facilities to meet every need

ERNI uses DACHSER’s cutting-edge contract logistics infrastructure in Asia, which includes the warehouse in Hong Kong, the customs warehouse at Changi cargo airport in the east of Singapore, and the DACHSER warehouse in the west. “Our facilities and our well-established processes put us in a position to guarantee all kinds of re-exports, transit services, and short-term import and export services for ERNI,” says Jan-Michael Beyer, Head of Sales, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam at DACHSER.

By outsourcing its warehousing activities, ERNI has turned fixed costs into variable costs without sacrificing any reliability, Beyer says. Incoming freight is recorded at DACHSER warehouses in accordance with the stock keeping unit (SKU) level, an international warehousing standard. Each container is unpacked and checked, the products are labeled or relabeled, and then they are stored or prepared for transit using the pick & pack process. Overall, DACHSER’s Singapore location has more than 50 employees.

“We have the capacity and the manpower to respond quickly to all sorts of shipments and handle them with a high degree of flexibility,” Stadus says. DACHSER can deal with urgent shipments in under an hour. “We’re able to bring all the necessary people together from across the DACHSER network—for instance employees in Stuttgart and Hong Kong—to fulfill orders without delay,” he adds.

For Stadus, he and the DACHSER team have a clear responsibility: “We’re always looking to take the service level for our customers up a notch. To do that, we look for ways to apply our experience in electronics logistics so we can constantly live up to our excellent standards and build on them.” Beyer believes that in this case, the conditions are particularly good, adding, “ERNI and DACHSER are an excellent fit for each other. Both are family companies and share common values, especially when it comes to innovations, sustainability, and respect.” The perfect partnership for connecting connectors.