Zollner Elektronik AG, Luminovo Set the New Standard for Digital Supply Chain Collaboration in the EMS Industry

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Europe's EMS market leader, Zollner Elektronik AG, chooses Luminovo, the number one quoting, procurement and collaboration software for the electronics supply chain, as one core partner for their digitalization strategy. The time ca- pacity thus gained can in turn be used to focus on the diverse needs of the customers.

Together, the two companies will build on the collaboration that led to the launch of Zollner’s RapidSample prototyping portal back in August 2022.

Thomas Schreiner, CFO at Zollner Elektronik AG, explains: “When we started with our proto- typing portal we asked ourselves: are our customers ready for a browser-native digital inter- face to process their BOMs and interact with Zollner? And can we bring this to life while maintaining the highest level of quality and professionalism our customers have come to ex- pect from Zollner? I’m happy to say that a year and a half later, the answer to both is a re- sounding yes.”

“The COVID supply chain crisis showed everyone the damage and disruption that can be caused by a lack of transparency brought on by supply chain data locked in Excel and on- premise ERPs”, says Sebastian Schaal, founder of Luminovo. “Add to this the shortage of qualified labour, and it becomes obvious that investment in process automation, enabled by software such as ours, is the only feasible option to cope with the expected growth in the electronics industry over the next years.”

But saving effort and costs through more process automation isn’t the only goal for Luminovo and Zollner.

Timon Ruban, Luminovo’s second founder, adds: “By digitizing Zollner’s customer interface, we are enabling a never-before-seen collaboration across company boundaries, from OEM to EMS provider, to distributors and chip manufacturers. There is a new generation of pro- curement professionals in the electronics industry that grew up with modern ‘Amazon-like’ buying experiences, and they expect the same experience, with maximum speed and trans- parency from their suppliers today.”

The next objectives on Zollner and Luminovo’s shared agenda are to extend the customer collaboration portal from prototypes to series production, and to bring speed and transpar- ency beyond the request for quotation (RfQ) phase to other common touchpoints between EMS and their customers, like monitoring inventory levels and updating demand forecasts.

Markus Aschenbrenner, Member of the board at Zollner, concludes: “In a few year’s time, having a customer collaboration portal will be the norm, not the exception, in the EMS indus- try. By pioneering this new type of collaboration with our customers, Zollner is positioning it- self at the forefront of this movement in the EMS industry, and we’re excited to continue to partner with Luminovo to make these innovations a reality.”