Mexico and IPC On the Move

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

There’s a saying that highly successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability, and opportunity. The same can be said for electronics manufacturing and assembly in Mexico: We have the motivation, the ability, and the unique opportunity to take this industry to the next level.

For many years, Mexican companies have reliably produced various products for global markets, and together with more recent investments in homegrown talent, have positioned Mexican manufacturing to take advantage of recent shifts in global supply chains and consumer markets.

Similarly, IPC has a long history with Mexican companies, providing standards and certification to a largely labor-based workforce. There are nearly 140 IPC member companies with facilities in Mexico.

A Growing Need
As the electronics industry grew in Mexico, IPC recognized it must train and certify not only labor-intensive roles, but the more technical roles, such as inspection, design, and engineering. In early 2020, immediately prior to the global COVID pandemic, IPC personnel traveled to Mexico and met with numerous companies in our industry. Their goal was to learn how best to serve this growing need for training and certification. While the pandemic restricted further in-person investigation for a time, IPC continued its conversations virtually to guide the development of training programs with Mexico.

In 2022, once pandemic restrictions were manageable and newly developed training products had been made available in both English and Spanish, IPC’s Education Team once again set its sights on face-to-face engagement in Mexico. It wasn’t enough, however, for IPC just to create Spanish-language products for this vital market and to serve the electronics industry from afar. That’s where I come in.

Putting Boots on the Ground
I am based in Mexico City and my experience in various professional roles with global brands has positioned me to accelerate IPC’s strategy development and understanding of Mexico’s electronics manufacturing needs—both Mexico’s common goals in a global market, as well as its unique challenges. We have found there’s a lot of work to be done on “re-educating” the local industry on the difference between certification and training and seeing workforce training as an investment rather than just an expense.

With its strong foundation based on IPC standards and certification, the IPC Education Team began months of intense relationship building as well as market research and analysis. The results were immediate. Through our in-person, social media, and marketing activities, we were flooded with messages from companies and individuals interested in knowing more about IPC Mexico, learning about our specialized training courses, and understanding our certification programs and industry standards.

We launched several pilot programs with key members and nonmembers of IPC, such as Benchmark and Continental, that have strong operations in Mexico. Our objective was for them to achieve better quality, lower costs, and improve productivity through training—something obvious, but not so popular. We met with the leadership teams, human resources, and training leaders; walked with their operations, quality, and engineering teams; and had coffee and cookies with the operators. We walked the floor and listened to people, hoping to understand their needs and how they are carrying out their daily manufacturing activities.

To read the rest of this article, which appeared in the Spring 2023 issue of IPC Community, click here.