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Factory Visit: Two of the German Factories Producing Parts for Nuimo

Manufacturing in China isn't the only option.

By Teshia Treuhaft - June 9, 2015

in Product Design | Consumer Electronics | Crowdfunding

Editors Note: Teshia is a part of Berlin-based hardware startup Senic currently building their first product Nuimo.

As countless hardware startups and design firms can tell you, there is a huge difference between designing a product and building a product. The general consensus when you move into the manufacturing phase is you also move to China (most often Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta where nearly 5% of the world's goods are made).

Recently this assumption has been challenged by a number of hardware startups both in Europe and Stateside looking to be closer to their manufacturers—particularly in places where craftsmanship is a long-running tradition. For our first product the Nuimo (a bluetooth enabled controller for your computer and IoT devices such as Sonos Speakers or Philips Hue), we decided early on to manufacture locally in Germany.

Location of Manufacturing Partners for Nuimo

When people talk about amazing German manufacturing—often they aren't referring to the famous German brands, but to companies known as the German 'Mittelstand.' These companies are small to medium size, often family-run and have a narrow manufacturing focus, making them extremely good at making one particular thing. Companies like this in Germany and elsewhere are hot right now with American startups like Everlane touting 'radical transparency' with their partners and Harry's buying one of the oldest men's razor factories in Germany.

Nuimo - IoT Controller

One important distinction is what qualifies as 'locally'—a term that companies define loosely at best. The rule of thumb is generally that if you have produced the majority of your parts in a country and assembled there it qualifies as being manufactured there regardless of whether some of the components have still been shipped from China.

For Nuimo, there are over 80 components and parts to be assembled, some of them by hand and others by pick and place machines. Two of the biggest components to manufacture are the Aluminum Outer Ring and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) all of which we have partnered with German manufacturers to produce. Here is a snap shot of what manufacturing looks like when you're in the thick of it:

Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing in Fulda, Germany

Creating a PCB is the core of most consumer electronics projects, it's also an incredible design challenge. Because the PCB acts as the central hub that all other electrical components are placed on, the creation and assembly of such a board has a number of major steps.

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First components are ordered in advance (often in large quantities from Asia or elsewhere) these parts range from sensors, resistors, capacitors etc.

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Next, the 'bare' PCB, generally made of a plastic material or resin, is spread with soldering paste and placed into a 'pick and place' machine. This machine will place the components into the correct location on the soldering paste so that later on, it will have a reliable electrical connection.

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Once the pick and place machine places all the components, the entire PCB is put into an oven that melds the soldering paste into firm electrical connections.

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The PCB is then sent to be cooled and is ready for assembly into the device. This assembly is usually done on-site where the electrical components have been created to minimize the shipping (and potentially breaking) of delicate electronics.

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Aluminum Ring Turning in Berlin, Germany

Further north in Berlin, the aluminum ring used for selection control around the circumference of the device is created in small batches for prototyping.

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First long rods of aluminum are cut into short cylinders as to minimize the amount of wasted material.

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These short cylinders of aluminum are put into an industrial metal lathe which is set to specifications for the ring.

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An oil-based fluid flows onto the ring to keep the machinery cool and cut down excess metal flying off the ring as it's cut.

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The ring is released from the lathe once it reaches the proper dimensions and is washed and ready for anodizing.

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The entire process in action looks like this:

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When these two key pieces are combined with a number of others that are made all over Germany, to create the final product: Nuimo.

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Nuimo is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, for more information on the design and manufacturing check out their website or blog.

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9 years ago

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may i ask if we are keen to visit on site to one of these small family run companies, could you help to connect us with them. This is a Singapore high school visit to Germany and it is one of the main factors of the trip. around 24 people with 3 lecturers. pls response to : tonywong@tonghang88.com

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Chris Kamrubov

9 years ago

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Teshia, please could you name the company in the north of Berlin? It's always good to know smaller companies who are willing in prototype or small scale manufacturing.. Thanks, Chris

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Mark Thomas

9 years ago

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Teshia, thanks for reply.

I'd like to see an German Alibaba to make Mittelstand accessible those of us (eg, in SF Bay Area) deprived of that sort of capacity.

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Mark Thomas

9 years ago

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It'd be interesting to hear more about what exactly drives your decision on where to manufacture. For example, the aluminum ring is simple and could be made in dozens of countries. Is it cheaper in Germany? Is it patriotism? Just more pleasant to work with local companies? More efficient iteration at this early stage and small scale? All of the above? Would you stay in Germany if you need a million parts per month?

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- Teshia Treuhaft
  
  Mark Thomas
  
  9 years ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
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  Hey Mark! Thanks for asking.
  
  The short answer is: that depends very much on your product.
  
  The long answer is:
  For our scale of production (~10K unit range) it's actually comparable in price to produce here or in other countries. This is because we save time in each phase because we can travel directly to the factory, optimize our supply chain directly and receive samples parts sooner. We also don't have a time difference to contend with between our office and the factories (although it's common for a number of European startups to relocate for periods of time to Asia just for this reason).
  
  I would say it's about pragmatism more than patriotism (although I'm American). If we found a partner that could produce a higher quality part at less cost and have ease of communication over the course of the process we would definitely select that partner.
  
  I'll be honest, yes! It's really pleasant to work with small family run companies - and still more efficient at this scale.
  
  It is unlikely that we would produce at that high a scale for a product like ours (just based on our market). Hypothetically, if we did outgrow our current partners we would probably relocate the manufacturing to Eastern Europe as parts would ship much faster to our HQ in Berlin. But we would definitely look into manufacturing in Asia as well.
  
  You're correct that at that scale you do start saving considerable money by going to China when you look at a few cents over millions of units. However, for a higher end consumer electronic created by a startup - you select for speed of turn-around rather than the relatively small savings at medium-scale batches.
  
  I hope that shed some more light - thanks very much for asking!
  
  PS: An interesting case is actually Harry's (NYC-based for men's razor startup) because they bought an entire factory in Thuringia, Germany to produce their blades. When it comes to these 'Mittelstand' companies there really isn't anyone who can make it better.
  
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