Operational Overview

BMK knows that in order to target customers that are market leaders, it much also be a technology leader, so they have invested in Industry 4.0 and digitalization. Founded in 1994, with 1340 total employees, and a customer base located mostly in the DACH (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) region, BMK has grown organically by being a solid partner with their customers. Ten to 15% of their employees are engineers. They operate ten SMT lines in the Augsburg facility and two more in their Czech facility.  

Company Differentiators

BMK’s tagline is ‘Passion for Electronics’ and that sums up their differentiator. They maintain a very flexible manufacturing environment, enabling them to be quick and responsive. Their unique material delivery system was internally developed and is very functional and efficient. They also have an internally developed MES and are successfully using cobots (named after some recently retired long-term employees), along with SMT lines and AOI which meet the highest technological demands. They manufacture 5000 products across 150 customers and like to say they excel especially when things get challenging.

Strategic Growth Drivers

To date, all growth has been organic. They see the company’s future growth coming on the one hand from existing customers wanting more services like box-build. On the other hand, from new customers which need a partner to cope with the future technological demands. They serve industrial, automotive and some medical end markets. New business is also coming from companies bringing work back to the region from China

Facility Tour

Eric Miscoll and Dieter Weiss visited BMK’s Augsburg, Germany headquarters in December 2021 and were impressed especially with the material handling system and the company’s commitment to Industry 4.0. The 3D printing, internally developed MES, and automation capability were notable. The management team cited material delivery and labor shortages as key challenges, which they have responded to by redesigning products and exercising personal relationships with suppliers as key to success. BMK’s culture is one of getting the work done and continuously improving the product and the processes. They are very engaged with their customers and expect to grow. The BMK team does everything with passion for electronics. They cite the Olympic model for their business: bigger, faster, stronger…to which they have added “together.” They are organized into customer focused teams and see the work they do as all for the benefit of their customer partnerships.