ASEAN Electronics Manufacturing Event explores digitalisation solution and intelligent forming

Like most conferences last year, this year's ASEAN Electronics Manufacturing Event 2021 joins a long list of events going virtual. This event provided a few things to consider if you are looking to extract a few high-level details on current and future directions for innovations in electronics manufacturing.

Held on March 5, 2021 and organised by Ringier Trade Media, the virtual event drew more than 150 participants from South East Asia, Taiwan and China. The conference explored digitalisation solution and intelligent forming technology for the electronics manufacturing industry. This online platform illustrated the latest techniques and challenges presented by ASEAN Electronics experts from Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Singapore are addressing these challenges.

South East Asia is a vibrant hub for electronics manufacturing, which accounts for 20% to 50% of the total exports value in most countries in Asia. High quantities of the world's consumer electronics like televisions, radios, computers, and cellular phones come from the ASEAN region. In addition, more than 80% of the world’s hard drives are made in ASEAN. Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippines are three of the largest electronics manufacturing bases in South East Asia.

For this event, we had three industry presentations: Mr. Chanin Khaochan, Deputy Secretary General, Thailand Board of Investment, who talked about, "The Challenges Faced by Electronics OEM in Thailand." Mrs. Do Thi Thuy Huong, Executive Board of Vietnam Electronic Industries Association (VEIA), who spoke about "Vietnam Electronic Industries - the view of post COVID-19." Mr. Sherwin C. Nones, Head of Corporate Strategy, Integrated Micro electronics Inc. The New Technology Demand of Electronics Manufacturing Assembly and Testing in the Philippines.

The ASEAN Electronics Manufacturing Event presented three technology presentations. The first is one is by Mr. Siew Pai Oak, Head of Presales, Southeast Asia of Siemens Digital Industries Software. He discussed, "Digitalisation for Lean Manufacturing in Electronics Industry." Mr. Leo Liu Director of Ultrasonic Machine Tools Business Unit from Conprofe Technology Group Co., Ltd followed as he talked about, "Upgrading Electronic Manufacturing Capabilities with Ultrasonic Technologies." The last one is by GD Han of Yueming Laser Group Co., Ltd.

It is also worthwhile nothing this event's two Expert Interviews moderated by Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio. Mr. Niwat Phansilpakom – Asst. Vice President, Industrial Foundation Electrical and Electronics Institute (EEI) and Mr. Dan Lachica, President, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Inc. provided a good overview of the situation in Thailand and Philippines' electronics manufacturing industry.

Technical questions were posed on topics, such as the challenges and demand for manufacturers to embrace the digital transformation; benefits of using lean digital manufacturing initiatives; Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines industry outlook; and the technology of ultrasonic machining and laser solution in electronics manufacturing.

The conference ended with some questions from the audience seeking advice from the panellists for early research in the field.