Solectron opens new facility in Romania

The expansion of these capabilities in the Timisoara facility, Solectron's largest plant in Europe, will focus on providing advanced collaborative design and engineering services to Solectron's customers worldwide. Core capabilities will include electrical and mechanical design, advanced process technology, leading edge test development and failure analysis. "With the addition of the Design and Engineering Services Center, Solectron Timisoara is now a full-service manufacturing center in Europe," said Dave Purvis, executive vice president and chief technical officer, Solectron. "Furthermore, this investment underscores our commitment to the region by offering new services that expand our capabilities and enables us to deliver significant added value to our customers." Solectron's collaborative design and engineering is also winning over customers. "We're seeing a definite increase in customer demand for Solectron's unique collaborative approach to product design and engineering," added Purvis. "The Timisoara Design and Engineering Services Center is another example of how Solectron is helping OEMs to reduce costs, improve quality and increase time-to-market." Creating a competitive design execution center in Europe is a core element of the company's global design and engineering strategy, and Mike Cannon, president and CEO of Solectron, together with other senior management representatives, attended the opening of the new Design and Engineering Services Center. "The proximity to our customer base, highly competitive cost structure and strong local pool of technical talent all point to Timisoara as an excellent choice and a formidable capability in our future design and engineering services portfolio," added Purvis. Additionally, Timisoara offers Solectron high levels of technical talent -- both within Solectron as well as from Timisoara's Technical University. Solectron Timisoara has a positive relationship with the university, and will continue to develop specific projects and educational programs initiated in close partnership with the university. Solectron is the largest private employer in the Timisoara region. The Timisoara site serves major OEMs in the computer, telecommunications, digital consumer and industrial market sectors. Solectron Timisoara is committed to total quality management and has successfully implemented the Solectron Production System(TM) (SPS), the company's industry-leading Lean Six Sigma methodology, to improve quality in its operations. The European Union's Reduction of Hazardous Substances is set to take effect on July 1, 2006, and Solectron Timisoara offers lead-free manufacturing to meet RoHS requirements. The site was also awarded the prestigious International Quality Crown Award for Corporate Excellence and Leadership by the Business Initiative Directions (BID), an organization renowned for its expertise in the analysis of quality programs worldwide.