Yangtongxing：Brio’s Exploration in EMS Industry

　　　Brio is now a contract manufacturing enterprise, providing service to international companies like GE,

Philips, Pioneer, Panasonic and JVC. In less than ten years, fixed assets have increased nearly 100 fold.

wen / liuna

　　Since the foundation of Brio, Yang Tongxing, who used to be the deputy director of Beijing TV Instrument

Factory, has been exploring in EMS industry for a whole decade.

　　Mr. Yang maintains the quality of elegance and steadiness as a typical engineer. After seated, Mr. Yang

asked, “How much do you know about EMS?” He is fully acquainted with the social recognition of EMS. We

started this conversation in a cozy and natural atmosphere.

Start with Manufacturing for Others

　　EMS started to enjoy social recognition when some famous international enterprises stepped into the field

of manufacturing.

　　In 1999 when Brio was just brought into being, EMS was still generally known as the abbreviation of

Express Mail Service, which is provided by China Post. Nowadays electronic manufacturing service is already

prevalent. Famous brands are supported by those “invisible factories” like Brio, which is capable of

providing turn-key services like product design, material procurement, PCB mounting, product assembly,

testing, packaging and delivery.

　　“At that time, most Chinese enterprises doubted about Brio. They thought without a brand or certain

product, production is never possible. ” Since this industry is not familiar to people, Brio encountered

many difficulties at the beginning. “What is EMS? Brio has neither product of its own nor the core

technology of a product. What can you do for your clients? Therefore we need to promote understanding and our

business step by step. We need to introduce to our clients what our company is and how we provide service in

a specialized field.” With his own experience in EMS, Mr. Yang is pioneering in this new industry.

　　 “EMS started to enjoy social recognition when some famous international enterprises stepped into the

field of manufacturing. Ericsson entrusts its mobile manufacturing to Flextronics, while concentrating its

strength in cell phone technology development, design, brand promoting and marketing. Thanks to the positive

influence brought by internationally famous brands, Chinese enterprises started to know about EMS

development. After that when we are contacting our clients for business opportunities, they seem to know

about our industry.”

　　EMS develops at a fast speed and so does Brio. “In south China, the amount of electronics manufacturing

enterprises is much larger than that of north China. With a scattered disposition and small scale, the

electronics manufacturing enterprises in north China did not become main stream. The majority of the scale

enterprises are state-owned ones or research institutes, which own extra capital and equipments to operate

contract manufacturing as second industry. Brio is outstanding, specializing in electronic manufacturing

since its foundation.”

　　Brio started from scratches in 1999 with a small investment of 1 million yuan and 20 employees. Now it









boasts  fixed assets of nearly 100 million, 18 SMT lines and more than 1000 employees. It has become one of

the biggest Chinese EMS enterprises in north China. This fast growth highly spirited Mr. Yang. Brio has set

up its branches in Shanghai and Vancouver with clients like GE, Philips, Pioneer, Panasonic and JVC, etc.

Go out to the Global Market

Being a specialized manufacturing enterprise, we search for sustainable development and international market

in expanding our business.

　　Many of the global electronic product brands entrust their manufacturing to EMS providers. In 2002, the

global top 5 EMS enterprises make a total income of over 570,000 million yuan, which equals the total income

of top 100 electronic enterprises of China. Complimented by the profit, international EMS enterprises

gradually transfer their manufacturing bases into China. Another group of over 20 EMS enterprises, which rank

at the second grade, also started their action in China. Whereas the international enterprises transfer their

business into China, Brio has stretched its antenna abroad. With an income of over 50 million yuan, Brio set

up a branch in North America.

　　“With the intrusion of foreign EMS tycoons, the Chinese enterprises suffered from the shock. Since most

of our counterparts were doing small volume production with varied species, they face with a price

competition in that occasion. Brio had this kind of experience; our competitor asked the client about Brio’s

offer and promised to offer a lower price. In order to avoid this chaotic competition, which may lead to the

corruption of product quality and finally damage the product quality of our client, Brio decided to get away

from this situation in China. Brio has a tradition of serving its clients honestly; therefore we would not

risk the quality of our service. Sticking to the going global strategy, Brio still maintains some major

clients while leaving those behind who only care about the price,” Mr. Yang says.

　　 In fact, before the establishment of Canada Brio, Brio has already had constant contact with some

foreign enterprises and known that some North American OEM and EMS enterprises wish to cooperate with Chinese

EMS enterprises and transfer their capability to mainland China. “The big EMS enterprises are moving to

China. The medium and small sized ones also have the pressure of cost and therefore want to transfer to

China. However, they cannot find a path,” adds Mr. Yang, “Being a specialized manufacturing enterprise, we

search for sustainable development and international market in expanding our business.”

　　It has been proved that Brio has made a right decision. News comes from the North American market that

orders have come from many resources. Many medium or small size enterprises come to Brio, hoping that Brio

can promote products and procure materials apart from manufacturing for them. Some even wish to get turn-key

service from Brio.

Lead-free production in the Green Wave

Even the engineers from Panasonic were surprised, “You are the second Asian enterprise that applies lead-

free manufacturing, secondary to the first one in Japan.”

　　Since the implementation of “Chinese RoHS” standard on March 1st, 2007, all the electronic products in

Chinese market should be in compliance, including vehicle radar, telecommunication equipment, cell phone, TV,

computer, stereo set, DVD, semi-conductor, IC, medi-care electronic equipment and battery. This means a new











era for Chinese electronic manufacturing has arrived——lead-free manufacturing. However, to traditional EMS

enterprises, this means they not only have the pressure of export but also a new one.

　　Since EU’s implementation of RoHS prior to that of China has already an impact on China. The EMS

enterprises with orders from both inside and outside China have taken RoHS standard as a usual practice,there

won’t be great changes in implementing this in China. The main influence would be an increase in cost,

which greatly shake the medium and small size enterprises in China.

　　However, this change has merely influence to Brio because it started "green" manufacturing much earlier.

The equipments were imported according to lead-free standard. The process was strictly controlled to prevent

the usage of poisoning materials.

　　As early as December, 2000, Beijing Brio has started the implementation of lead-free processing and

hosted an exhibition of 0603 mini size particle surfacing. More than 100 representatives from the industry

attended this event. It was the first time that counterparts in North China see what lead-free manufacturing

is. Even the engineers from Panasonic were surprised, “You were the second Asian enterprise that applies

lead-free manufacturing, secondary to the first one in Japan.” Mr. Yang is proud to talk about this.


Go Further in Non-brand Manufacturing

Brio has clear market positioning. We will go further in Non-brand Manufacturing.

　　The rapid development of EMS caused the divergence between manufacturers and brand enterprises. It has

been an issue under discussion for so many times. Mr. Yang is sure of Brio’s direction, “Brio has clear

market positioning.  We will go further in Non-brand Manufacturing.”

　　“In fact, many of our counterparts tried in the other direction.  For example, Benq, as a big

manufacturing enterprise at the beginning, has a brand of its own. This is what we call a breakthrough and

development.” Mr. Yang gives examples, “Of course, there are also those who failed in their attempts.  The

Taiwan manufacturer, DBTEL, used to manufacture for brand owners like Motorola, started the business of

producing cell phones and established their own brand. However in the developing process, there occurred

problems in many aspects. This leads to the inevitable result of an abrupt decrease in manufacturing

business.”

　　“This made us give this a second thought that if you want to build up a brand, you need to focus on the

different aspects and manipulate the resources in a different way. You may face with the conflicts between

your brand and that of your clients'. If you have your own product, the client might be worried because their

product is going to compete with yours in the same market. Even if you start a new business, there are still

many conflicts because of the financial relationships.” Mr. Yang explained.

　　 “The outdated concept of having one’s own brand still exists in Chinese manufacturing industry.

However, with the expansion of foreign EMS enterprises into China, local enterprises should be clear about

their advantages. For a long period in the future, our advantage still lies in manufacturing. Brio will move

forward in the field of EMS. Non-brand does not mean that we don’t have characteristics of our own. Brio

will establish its own style, way of management, and provide value-added service for our clients.”

Missions in Winter under Financial Storm

In winter, we don’t have to hibernate. We still have things to do to stand the chill.

　　“In fact at the beginning of 2008 we have already vaguely sensed the bad economic environment. We felt

the marketing of our service might change a little. This sensibility comes more from the special feature of

electronic manufacturing. The problem was revealed directly from the decrease of orders. By the way, we also

did research on the market of our industry.” Mr. Yang told us. In fact before the storm came, Brio has

already felt it although in a less pessimistic way.

　　In the following months, things turned out as they expected. Brio also suffered from the storm.

Therefore, last August at a managerial meeting, Mr. Yang required plans for a fully-prepared winter.

　　“Manufacturing enterprises from the east coast are at the upfront of this crisis. Those in North China

did not realize the power of this storm until the order quantity came to the bottom. We arranged meetings for

nearly a week to introduce to the managerial team about the economic situation we are going to meet. Every

department is required to prepare a plan on what they are going to do if the storm really comes.

　　During the National Day Holiday of 2008, since the manufacturing task was not so urgent, Brio arranged a

holiday for the operators. At the beginning of November, there was an obvious order decrease, which caused a

waste of Brio’s capability. The exportation of LCD TV suffered. The price of LCD TV is lower than the cost.

Apart from that, mechanical, auto electronic products were also influenced to different levels.

　　In spite of the negative influences, Yang Tongxing, together with his team was not hindered,

“enterprises in ODM/EMS industry, especially those of big scale, large volume of exportation or producing

hot consuming products, had much pressure because of the sliding consumption, reduction of exportation and

fierce market share competition. Therefore, many enterprises can not find enough order, stop their equipments

and provide insufficient work for their operators. As one of the modern electronic manufacturers, Brio also

suffered from this storm inevitably. However, I always tell my people‘ in winter, we don’t have to

hibernate. We still have things to do to stand the chill.’ ”