-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueShowing Some Constraint
A strong design constraint strategy carefully balances a wide range of electrical and manufacturing trade-offs. This month, we explore the key requirements, common challenges, and best practices behind building an effective constraint strategy.
All About That Route
Most designers favor manual routing, but today's interactive autorouters may be changing designers' minds by allowing users more direct control. In this issue, our expert contributors discuss a variety of manual and autorouting strategies.
Creating the Ideal Data Package
Why is it so difficult to create the ideal data package? Many of these simple errors can be alleviated by paying attention to detail—and knowing what issues to look out for. So, this month, our experts weigh in on the best practices for creating the ideal design data package for your design.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Trust in the Process: Zollner Elektronik Heavily Investing in a Future Filled With Electronics
April 30, 2025 | Michelle Te, IPC CommunityEstimated reading time: 2 minutes

Family goals and values—born by one man tinkering around in his garage in Bavaria near the Czech border—are the cornerstones of IPC member Zollner Elektronik AG, one of the 15 largest EMS companies in the world, and the largest in Germany. The company places heavy priority on its employees, products, and partnerships.
Zollner has more than 13,000 employees in 25 locations worldwide, including Germany, Tunisia, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Thailand, and China, five locations in the U.S., and one in Costa Rica. In 2023, the company had a turnover of about 2.8 billion euros. Manfred Zollner is chair of the supervisory board, and his three sons are on the board.
“We are a family company and are still family-driven,” says Xaver Feiner, vice president of marketing and sales and, in this case, the company spokesperson, “and that’s very important for us from a cultural perspective. People are very important to us.”
This is highly evident in the company’s training programs, particularly through its apprenticeships that support young people in the fields of electrical, mechanical, and mechatronics. They support bachelor’s and master’s programs and have their own training center.
Students of high school and college age attend school two days a week, and train at Zollner for the other days. Or they attend school for two weeks, and then work for three weeks in the training center. “That’s the model in Germany,” Xaver says. Zollner offers a similar program at its facilities in China.
“You have to understand where we are coming from,” he says. “Our headquarters are in Zandt, a very small village of about 2,000 people. On our campus, we have about 3,000 people, so we have more employees than people living in the town. But when our founder started the company, we were right at the border of the Iron Curtain.”
During the 1960s and ’70s, that area experienced high unemployment, and Zollner “had no other choice” but to train the local people to build electronics. “No electronics or EMS businesses even existed in our area,” Xaver says. “At the time, we were driven by some tourism, and a lot of agriculture. Workers had been moving to Munich, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart to get jobs. Those were the hotspots.”
Continue reading this article in the Spring 2025 issue of IPC Community.
Testimonial
"We’re proud to call I-Connect007 a trusted partner. Their innovative approach and industry insight made our podcast collaboration a success by connecting us with the right audience and delivering real results."
Julia McCaffrey - NCAB GroupSuggested Items
From Attraction to Action: Where Marketing Ends and Sales Begins
07/29/2025 | Brittany Martin, I-Connect007Before a PO hits the system, marketing has already done a lot of heavy lifting. Without strategic marketing, the PO might never arrive. At I-Connect007, we have been fortunate to help many companies achieve sales success through marketing. The key to success? Understanding how marketing leads to sales.
SMT Perspectives and Prospects: Warren Buffett’s Perpetual Wisdom, Part 1
07/29/2025 | Dr. Jennie Hwang -- Column: SMT Perspectives and ProspectsOver the years, I have cherished the lessons by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. This year, I was among the more than 40,000 who attended the May 3 meeting. Millions more from around the world, including from the UK, Germany, Japan, China, Panama, and Guatemala, tuned in remotely and via CNBC’s livestream.
Standard of Excellence: Training Your Team to Excel in Customer Service
07/30/2025 | Anaya Vardya -- Column: Standard of ExcellencePeople often consider technical capability and delivery speed as the gold standards in manufacturing, but customer service is a powerful differentiator. Advanced technologies and rigorous certifications may open doors, but the way a company treats its customers determines whether those doors stay open. It’s essential to train teams to deliver exceptional customer service, from top-level leadership to every point of customer interaction.
Powering Progress: Summer 2025 Community Magazine Now Available
07/22/2025 | Community MagazineIn the new Summer 2025 edition of Community Magazine, members of the Global Electronics Association demonstrate what progress really looks like—through innovation on the factory floor, influence on public policy, and investment in the next generation of engineers.
The Big Picture: Our Big ‘Why’ in the Age of AI
06/25/2025 | Mehul Davé -- Column: The Big PictureWith advanced technology, Tesla, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI can quickly transform life as we know it. Several notable artificial intelligence (AI) studies, including the 2024 McKinsey Global Survey on AI, have offered insights into AI’s adoption, impact, and trajectory. The McKinsey study revealed that AI adoption continues to grow, with 50% of respondents reporting using AI in at least one business area.