Program 2025 *

New times, new opportunities - strategies for the changing EMS sector

Market consolidation, geopolitical challenges and social change call for clever minds and courageous decisions. The EMS Day 2025 offers practical impulses and concrete solutions for reviewing, adapting and future-proofing corporate strategies. Strong leadership, sustainable customer relationships and strategic foresight form the basis for remaining successful even in uncertain times. Benefit from the experience of successful managers, industry experts and trainers who will share their expertise and perspectives with you.

October 21 – Evening event in Würzburg

Networking Dinner

Networking event in the Maschinenhaus in Bürgerbräu Würzburg – take the opportunity to make initial contacts and engage in an informal exchange with participants, speakers and exhibitors of the EMS Tag.

October 22 – EMS-Tag at the Vogel Convention Center Würzburg

Check In & Welcome Coffee

Welcoming the participants

Maria Beyer-Fistrich

ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS

Claudia Mallok

Specialist journalist and presenter

Actively shaping the future: Strategies and structures for EMS companies in the consolidation market

Sven Krumpel

Sven Krumpel

Manager in the electronics industry

  • Lecture description

    In an environment characterised by market consolidation, it is not only crucial for EMS companies to develop and regularly review a clear strategic positioning, but also to create the organisational and financial conditions to successfully implement their strategies. Sven Krumpel, experienced manager and former CEO and co-owner of a leading distributor, shows how he mastered similar challenges in component distribution.  He draws parallels with the EMS sector and provides practical ideas on how companies can align their organisation for growth, anchor their strategy in day-to-day business and secure their financial basis. He also sheds light on the issue of critical company size as a decisive factor for successful market positioning. His message: "Don't moan, actively shape the future!" - a lecture that provides food for thought for sustainable corporate development.

EMS reorganisation: Survive, rethink, win

Klaus Schuster

Klaus Schuster

Manager and non-fiction author, Managing Director of SG Automotive

  • Lecture description

    Anecdotes from the engine room: How we more than held our nerve when restructuring an EMS company and still won in the end. 


    How do you succeed in reorganising an EMS company in a tight market situation? Klaus Schuster reports on an unusual turnaround project that began as a consultancy mandate - and ended in the takeover of the management. With no previous experience in the EMS sector, but with a clear view of the causes and consistent implementation, he initiated a far-reaching transformation at SG Automotive. The presentation will focus on central questions of operational restructuring: How do you analyse the real causes of a corporate crisis? How do you manage to establish new ways of thinking internally and win over a team for change? How do you get sales and communication back on track, secure liquidity and restore the trust of customers, suppliers and partners? Using concrete anecdotes from everyday reorganisation, the presentation will provide practical impulses for restructuring, change management and entrepreneurial courage - with a special focus on the challenges of the EMS industry.

Coffee break and visit to the exhibition

Correlations in the customer portfolio – understanding and utilising strategic relationships

Daniel Frieg

Daniel Frieg

Managing Director | GBS Electronic Solutions

  • Lecture description

    A balanced customer portfolio is more than the sum of individual orders - it is a strategic success factor. However, interdependencies and patterns between customers are often overlooked, especially in medium-sized EMS companies. The result: unbalanced capacity utilisation, margin fluctuations or strategic conflicts of objectives. In his presentation, Daniel Frieg, an experienced sales manager with almost two decades of industry experience in electronics manufacturing, will show how such correlations in the customer portfolio can be recognised and systematically exploited. He will provide insights into tried-and-tested methods of analysis and use specific examples from everyday sales to show how operational management, market knowledge and strategic thinking can lead to a more robust, profitable business.

Collaborative networks: More transparency, sustainability and efficiency for the EMS industry

Fahir Veladzic

Fahir Veladzic

Founder and CEO | chipsconnect GmbH / Expert for SCM and strategic purchasing

  • Lecture description

    The latest allocation in the electronics industry has presented many OEM and EMS companies with enormous challenges. In order to avoid production downtime, large quantities of components were procured ahead of time (hoarding purchases), which are now in stock in warehouses - without a clear outlook as to whether and when they will actually be used up. This has created an artificial demand that will keep the entire electronics industry busy for years. This leads to high capital commitment and economic risks for companies. Companies lack an efficient way of reselling surplus components. Exchanges with other OEM and EMS companies take place, if at all, laboriously via manual lists and emails. Without a networked platform, selling to brokers is often the only option - with considerable financial losses. In this presentation, specific companies and examples will be used to show how OEM and EMS companies can achieve this through cooperation, efficient processes and digital platforms:


    • Be able to trade or swap surplus materials efficiently and directly without having to rely on middlemen or intermediaries.
    • View a complete overview of the stocks available on the market - affiliated companies, co-operation partners, OEMs and EMS companies, manufacturers and distributors - and use them in a targeted manner.
    • Better plan product launches and series production in order to avoid unnecessary new purchases and excess stock.

     Find out how digital solutions can turn excess materials in the electronics industry into a strategic opportunity - efficiently, networked and economically viable.

What OEMs expect from EMS providers

Michael Künsebeck

Michael Künsebeck

Industry expert and EMS consultant | künsebeck e² consulting

Matthias Holsten

Matthias Holsten

Industry expert and EMS consultant | matthias holsten e² consulting GmbH

  • Lecture description

    In an increasingly complex electronics industry, partnership-based cooperation between OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services) service providers is of crucial importance for corporate success. This presentation examines the OEMs' view of their EMS partners, focussing on both the general assessment and specific aspects of satisfaction and expectations. Based on a comprehensive survey of OEMs, key success factors such as quality, costs, flexibility and innovative ability will be analysed. In addition, a field report from numerous joint projects provides practical insights into typical challenges and success models in cooperation. The aim of the presentation is to present the OEMs' perspective in a differentiated manner and to derive recommendations for action for successful collaboration between OEMs and EMS service providers.

Lunch break and visit to the exhibition

Finally do your job - How sales work in difficult times

Holger Steitz

Holger Steitz

Sales Training & Consulting Holger Steitz / Expert for new customer acquisition and B2B sales

  • Lecture description

    Poor order situation, lack of visibility, short-term planning and still full component warehouses in many places - the EMS industry is in a tense situation. But it is precisely in such phases that clarity, structure and consistency in action are needed. In his presentation, Holger Steitz will show which immediately implementable strategies decision-makers can use to reorganise sales, exploit potential in existing stock and lead their teams to greater focus and effectiveness.

    The presentation is based on his book "Mach endlich Deinen Job" ("Finally do your job") and does away with common excuses and paralysing actionism in sales. Instead of half-hearted multitasking manoeuvres, the focus is on concentrating on the essentials - and on questioning entrenched processes and replacing them with effective measures.

    With a great deal of practical experience, clear words and a pinch of humour, Holger Steitz provides impulses that have an immediate effect in everyday management and sales. A lecture for anyone who wants to re-motivate their team, create clarity and utilise the opportunities that lie in sales, especially in challenging times.

Coffee break and visit to the exhibition

Modern leadership culture in production operations

Andreas Blaut

Andreas Blaut

Managing Director | EPS – Electronic Products & Systems GmbH

  • Lecture description

    Many production companies continue to rely on traditional management styles. The presentation will shed light on the development from authoritarian to bureaucratic, transactional and participative models through to transformational leadership. The latter is not based on control or rewards, but on vision, inspiration, values and the targeted development of employees. The aim is to sustainably strengthen identification, motivation and personal responsibility within the company. The example of EPS GmbH shows how a modern management culture can be successfully introduced in an industrial environment. The change began with a clear commitment to leadership, structural adjustments, the establishment of a new management team and targeted recruitment. This was complemented by a company-wide training programme that established a common understanding of leadership. The presentation offers practical insights into the cultural change of a production company. The audience will learn about the prerequisites for modern leadership, how typical resistance can be overcome and the measurable successes that can be achieved through value-orientated, transformational leadership.

Avoid excess inventory. Respond flexibly. Create transparency. – What EMS needs now.

Boris Ulmer

Boris Ulmer

Director Product Management | ELECTRONIC-DIRECT GmbH und PhD Student

  • Lecture description

    The chip crisis has led to structural overstocking in many EMS companies - with serious consequences for liquidity, planning reliability and resource utilisation. Small and medium-sized companies in particular are faced with the challenge of managing their inventories efficiently without losing operational flexibility. The lecture presents evidence-based solutions from scientific work that was developed as part of a doctoral project. Digital data models and forecasting methods that increase transparency along the supply chain and reduce information asymmetries will be presented. These include standardised data structures, VMI, stochastic replenishment systems, fill rate models and AI-supported forecasts. This is supplemented by instruments to increase liquidity such as buy-back models, consignment stocks and digital marketplaces. Boris Ulmer shows how these approaches can be implemented regardless of company size and level of digitalisation. Through the targeted integration of distributors, companies can shorten response times, reduce inventory risks and sustainably improve their planning processes.

Digital business models for EMS

Sebastian Schaal

Sebastian Schaal

Managing Director and Founder | Luminovo

  • Lecture description

    EMS companies are facing a fundamental change: pure PCB assembly is becoming increasingly interchangeable. In order to remain competitive, EMS service providers must think beyond traditional contract manufacturing and offer genuine additional services. At the EMS Day 15 years ago, we discussed which value-added services, such as cleaning up the bill of materials (BoM) or optimising designs to reduce process steps, were often provided without monetisation. Today, the greatest potential for new, sustainable business models lies in digitalisation - particularly through innovative platforms and the use of AI tools.


     In this presentation, we will first highlight the key digital platform changes and current trends that are changing electronics manufacturing for the long term. Using specific practical examples, we will show how EMS service providers can successfully implement digital business models and use AI-supported solutions to optimise their processes and tap into new sales potential.

Closing presentation and outlook for 2026

Maria Beyer-Fistrich

ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS

Claudia Mallok

Specialist journalist and presenter

* Subject to change