Plexus Corporation (PLXS)

Products and Services

Plexus offers a broad range of integrated services as more fully described below; the company’s customers may utilize any, or all, of the following services and tend to use more of these services as their outsourcing strategies mature:

Product development and design

Plexus provides comprehensive conceptual design and value-engineering services. These product design services include project management, feasibility studies, product conceptualization, specification development for product features and functionality, circuit design (including digital, microprocessor, power, analog, radio frequency (RF), optical and micro-electronics), field programmable gate array design (FPGA), printed circuit board layout, embedded software design, mechanical design (including thermal analysis, fluidics, robotics, plastic components, sheet metal enclosures, and castings), development of test specifications and product verification testing. Plexus invests in the latest design automation tools and technology. Plexus also provides comprehensive value-engineering services for the company’s customers that extend the life cycles of their products. These value-added services include engineering change-order management, cost reduction redesign, component obsolescence management, product feature expansion, test enhancement and component re-sourcing.

Prototyping and new product introduction services

Plexus provides assembly of prototype products within the company’s operating sites. Plexus supplements the company’s prototype assembly services with other value-added services, including materials management, analysis of the manufacturability and testability of a design, test implementation and pilot production runs leading to volume production. These services link the company’s engineering and the company’s customers’ engineering to the company’s volume manufacturing facilities. These links facilitate an efficient transition from engineering to manufacturing. Plexus believes that these services provide significant value to the company’s customers by accelerating their products’ time-to-market schedule, reducing change activity and providing a robust product set.

Test equipment development

Enhanced product functionality has led to increasingly complex components and assembly techniques; consequently, there is a need to design and assemble increasingly complex in-circuit and functional test equipment for electronic products and assemblies. The company’s internal development of this test equipment allows it to rapidly specify, implement, maintain and enhance test solutions that efficiently test printed circuit assemblies, subassemblies, system assemblies and finished products. Plexus also develops specialized equipment that allows it to environmentally stress-test products during functional testing to assure reliability. Plexus believes that the internal design and production of test equipment is an important factor in the company’s ability to provide technology-driven products of consistently high quality.

Material sourcing and procurement

Plexus provides contract manufacturing services on either a “turnkey” basis, which means Plexus sources and procures the materials required for product assembly, or on a “consignment” basis, which means the customer supplies the materials necessary for product assembly. Turnkey services include materials procurement and warehousing in addition to manufacturing and involve greater resource investment and potential inventory risk than consignment services. Substantially all of the company’s manufacturing services are currently on a turnkey basis.

Agile manufacturing services

Plexus has the manufacturing services expertise required to assemble very complex electronic products that utilize multiple printed circuit boards and subassemblies. These manufacturing services, which Plexus endeavors to provide on an agile and rapid basis, are typically configured to fulfill unique end-customer requirements and many are shipped directly to the company’s customers’ end users. Plexus provides a range of higher level assembly services to the company’s customers; these products typically fall into one of the following categories in the company’s assembly spectrum:


System integration and mechatronic integration products can be very large and could include products such as kiosks, finished medical products and complex electro-mechanical assemblies. These products often combine many of the other integrated services Plexus provides and may require more unique facility configurations as well as supply chain solutions than the company typically employs.

Fulfillment and logistic services

Plexus provides fulfillment and logistic services to many of the company’s customers. Direct Order Fulfillment (“DOF”) entails receiving orders from the company’s customers that provide the final specifications required by the end-customer. Plexus then Builds to Order (“BTO”) and Configures to Order (“CTO”) and delivers the product directly to the end-customer. The DOF process relies on Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) systems integrated with those of the company’s customers to manage the overall supply chain from parts procurement through manufacturing and logistics.

After-market support

Plexus provides service support for manufactured products requiring repair and/or upgrades, which may or may not be under a customer’s warranty. In support of certain customers, Plexus provides these services for some products which it did not originally manufacture. Plexus provides in and out bound logistics required to support fulfillment and service.

Regulatory requirements

In addition, Plexus has developed certain processes and tools to meet industry-specific requirements. Among these are the tools and processes to assemble finished medical devices that meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration Quality Systems Regulation requirements and similar regulatory requirements in other countries.
The company’s manufacturing and engineering facilities are ISO certified to 9001:2008 standards. Plexus has additional certifications and/or registrations held by certain of the company’s facilities in various geographic locations: