Jabil Circuit, Inc. is a worldwide provider of electronics manufacturing services. Jabil designs and manufactures electronics for major OEMs in a diverse group of industries including healthcare, life sciences, clean technology, instrumentation, defense, aerospace, automotive, computing, storage, consumer products, networking and telecommunications. They also provide design engineering services, production, product management and aftermarket service to companies in the aerospace, automotive, computing, consumer, defense, industrial, instrumentation, medical, networking, peripherals, solar, storage and telecommunications industries. Jabil is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida and is one of the largest companies in the Tampa Bay area. They operate in 33 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

 

History

Jabil was founded in 1966 by William E. Morean and James Golden in Detroit, Michigan with beginning operations in Morean’s garage. The Jabil name is composed of the founders’ first names (James and Bill). Despite Golden’s leaving the organization during its infancy, Jabil grew and operations were moved into a small facility in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1967. Shortly after opening this location, Jabil continued to flourish in the circuit board manufacturing industry and incorporated in 1969.

 

Morean’s son, William D. Morean, joined the enterprise in 1977 and brought with him a shift in Jabil’s operations. Morean implemented automated equipment and processes with the aim of attracting high-volume customers. In light of Morean’s changes in operations and sales and marketing strategies, Jabil transitioned into the Electronics Manufacturing Services Industry by manufacturing machine controls, voice synthesizers and control automations. By 1979, Morean secured a high-profile relationship with General Motors. This relationship accounted for a significant amount of revenue during this time and led to greater strides in service offerings, such as turnkey and engineering services, as well as purchasing of all parts for General Motors.

 

During the 1980’s, Jabil began integrating Independent test engineering and development, computer-aided production design services as well as product innovations such as surface mount technology (SMT) and tape automated bonding (TAB). Jabil also innovated the workcell concept during this time, or independent business unit. The independent business unit conducted itself as a “company within a company,” focusing its activities on specific products or individual customers. This specialized technique was implemented by project managers, engineers, materials procurement, supervisors, direct workers and dedicated manufacturing equipment, thereby creating more efficient workflows.

 

As Jabil increased its customer relationships, the organization recognized additional facilities outside of Michigan were needed to better serve customers. In 1983, headquarters were moved to its current location in St. Petersburg, Florida. New facilities were also added in 1992 in Auburn Hills, Michigan and a prototype and design facility in San Jose, California. Jabil further expanded its locations by opening its first International facility in Livingston, Scotland in 1993. In the same year, Jabil became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. Other international sites were added in Malaysia and Mexico in 1995 and 1997. It was during this time that Jabil also began to focus on the communications market by providing manufacturing services in the emerging network hardware industry. From 1998 to 2000, key acquisitions occurred with Hewlett-Packard’s laser printer formatter operations, GET Manufacturing, the warranty and repair service division of EFTC, Telenor Technology Services and Bull Information Technology. These strategic endeavors cultivated Jabil’s global presence with the additions of several international facilities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Italy, Eastern Europe and South America. Facilities were also added in the United States in locations such as Massachusetts, Florida and Tennessee. A wide range of diverse products and services were offered during the early 2000s, namely in design, manufacturing, direct fulfillment, repair and warranty services and plastic injection molding technologies. Jabil exceeded $3.5 billion in revenues by 2002.

 

In 2005 and 2007, Jabil acquired Varian Electronics Manufacturing and Taiwan-based Green Point Enterprises Co. Ltd. Both acquisitions further strengthened Jabil’s global standing within the medical, communications, industrial, mobile phone technology and aerospace industries. Jabil continued to broaden its reach in Asia by opening a site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Jabil also made strides in quality and financial performance by receiving Global ISO 9001 and ISO 140012 Certification and making record revenues in 2010 of $13.4 billion.

 

As of March 2013, Jabil has 60 sites in 33 countries in four continents including Tel Aviv, Israel. Since going public, Jabil has been cited as “one of five companies to have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent or higher.” According to former CEO and current Chairman of the Board, Tim Main, "the focus of the company in terms of forward-looking growth is diversified manufacturing services.” Jabil has branched out into several growth industries such as aerospace, defense, medical, healthcare/life sciences, clean technologies, solar and after market services.

 

On March 1, 2013, Jabil appointed William E. Peters to President and William D. Muir, Jr. to Chief Operating Officers. Both had been with Jabil for more than 20 years. On the same day, Mark Mondello was appointed to CEO to replace Timothy Main who was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. The appointments were sparked by the retirement of Board Chairman William Morean whose father founded Jabil in 1966.

 

Public offerings

Jabil went public in 1993 and traded on the NASDAQ under ticker symbol JBIL. In 1998, they began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol JBL. On June 6, 2000, Jabil announced a public offering of 13 million shares of its common stock. The offering was underwritten by Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and the proceeds (approximately $542.75 Million) were used for repayment of outstanding debt, capital expenditures, and for general corporate purposes (including acquisitions). The company was added to the S&P 500 Index in 2001. On July 4, 2003, Jabil announced a public offering of senior unsecured notes. The proceeds from the sale were used to repay indebtedness outstanding under Jabil's revolving credit facility, for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and to finance possible future acquisitions.

 

On July 31, 2012 - Jabil Circuit, Inc. announced the pricing of its offering of $500.0 million 4.700% senior unsecured notes due 2022 (the "Offering"). These notes will be issued at 99.992% of par. Jabil intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to repay outstanding borrowings under its revolving senior credit facility and for general corporate purposes.

 

Business areas

Jabil customers span numerous industries, including healthcare, life sciences, clean technology, instrumentation, defense, aerospace, automotive, computing, storage, consumer products, networking and telecommunications.[20] Its services include design engineering, manufacturing and supply chain services for the EMS and consumer industries; aftermarket services (warranty and repair); and materials technology services (plastics, metals, automation and tooling). Jabil diversifies their business into three areas.

 

Diversified Manufacturing

The diversified manufacturing services segment of Jabil manages high complexity global products in regulated industries and offers material and process technologies, including design and aftermarket services. These include clean technology, defense and aerospace, emerging growth, healthcare and life sciences, industrial, and instrumentation. Jabil offers material technology services by employing material scientists that deal with everything from types of metals, glass, ceramics and plastics. Their diversified manufacturing services include aftermarket services such as warranty and repair services.

 

Enterprise and Infrastructure

Jabil engages in highly complex large-scale system requirement products in regulated industries. Markets include computing and storage, networking, and telecommunications. Jabil has 300 engineers on their design team throughout the United States, China, Taiwan, and Europe who are dedicated to these business areas. Experience includes entry-level servers, clustered storage systems that support over 6 million platform configurations, and embedded storage and networking applications. Their regional computer and storage manufacturing centers are located in Memphis, Tennessee; Tiszaújváros, Hungary; Singapore City, Singapore; and Wuxi, China. Jabil's design centers are located in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Vienna, Austria; and Shanghai, China. Their support locations are in numerous locations throughout the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Eastern and Western Europe, Malaysia, and China.

 

Jabil has a networking and telecommunications team that works solely on turnkey electronic design and manufacturing services. These products are designed and manufactured for telecommunications and networking equipment companies. These products include wireless infrastructure, microwave backhaul, and wireless broadband access. The company also manufactures, supplies, and repairs user equipment such as modems, enterprise LANS and switches, routers, and cellar infrastructure. Jabil has networking and telecommunication locations in San Jose, California; Guadalajara, Mexico; Wuxi, China; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Pune, India; and Tisza.

 

High Velocity

Jabil engages in lower mix products for customers in the automotive, digital home, mobility, point of sale, and printing industries. Jabil's high velocity business focuses on getting business ideas from concept to market in the quickest time possible. The company focuses on faster time to market by providing businesses with product design, materials technology, validation and supply chain management, and aftermarket services. Jabil's facilities for high velocity systems are located in various locations throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Jabil has performed high velocity system work for many notable companies. In 2010, Jabil began to build all printers for Zebra Technologies and also produces the printed circuit board assemblies for all laser printers sold by HP.

 

Services

Jabil is involved in design engineering services. The company has industrial design services that concentrate on designing the look and feel of plastic and metal enclosures that house printed circuit board assemblies and systems. Mechanical design services of Jabil include dimensional design and analysis of electronic and optical assemblies. Computer assisted design from Jabil includes printed circuit board assembly design testing and verification and other consulting services.

 

Design Engineering

Jabil has an industry-specific design team for each of the industries that they supply including computer and storage, digital home, healthcare and instrumentation, point of sale, and mobile. The company uses value engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and software engineering to design products for their clients.[27] Jabil has assisted many Fortune 500 companies with design and engineering including inventing the Sandy Creek, a dual Intel Xeon E5-2690 (Sandy Bridge Romley-EP) based reference design for use in customer applications. Jabil also assisted Cisco with value engineering by placing RFID in circuit boards to store data about the host board.

 

Supply Chain and Logistics

Jabil provides supply chain and logistic services. These services include electronic sourcing, virtual / vertical mechanics, logistics, supply chain management, advanced planning, quality, standardized global systems, and supply chain solutions and business analytics. Examples of the company's supply chain and logistics management were seen during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. When supply chain disruption occurred, Jabil was able to re-route supply from alternative sources, allocate limited production to key customers and distributors, specify and quality alternative parts, or call on existing suppliers to help reduce the impact of the disruptions. Jabil was able to do the same during the 2010 and 2011 Thailand floods.

 

Fulfillment and Distribution

Jabil supplies fulfillment and distribution services for companies. They provide build-to-order and configure-to-order services that improve launch time with lower learning curves, increased flexibility, optimal shop floor routing, transparent customer visibility, and trade compliance management inclusive of denied party screening. The company's fulfillment and distribution services include supply chain management network optimization, visibility and flexibility, trade compliance, and logistics management.

 

Company culture

Over the years, Jabil has received awards for its community engagement and business practices. Jabil’s organizational culture supports numerous social and environmental responsibility initiatives and embraces lean thinking throughout the organization. The company also has its own university that it uses to promote employees from within the company. The university has programs for Operator To Supervisor, Blue Collar to White Collar, and White Collar to Future Manager.

 

Jabil's company culture embraces lean manufacturing which is the process of driving improvement and innovation by reducing waste and increasing process speed. In September 2011, Jabil hosted 14,000 Kaizen Blitz events. Kaizen is a Japanese term for improvement and Kaizen events are focused projects that aim to improve processes. Many of Jabil's senior leaders are currently undergoing or have already achieved Six Sigma Black Belt Certification (a Jack Welch principle).

 

Jabil also holds an annual improvement competition known as "Deliver Best Practices." This is a company-wide (and worldwide) competition to recognize, support, and promote process advancements within the company. Employee teams enter innovative and cost-saving projects into the Deliver Best Practices competition. After several rounds, the top twenty four projects from the global teams win a trip to Jabil's corporate offices and present their projects to company executives in person. One project in four different categories is chosen and the team receives a $10,000 prize.

 

Social and environmental responsibility

Jabil is involved in both social and environmental responsibility. Jabil employs a Director of Social and Environmental Responsibility as part of their company who also serves on the Board of Directors for the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition. Jabil is also certified by the EICC.

 

In 2010, Jabil Tempe donated to and sponsored 44 children of the Christmas Angels Program at the Child Crisis Center of Tempe, Arizona. In March 2012, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) held a 5K walk at Ft. DeSoto in St. Petersburg. There was a $5 parking fee that was not anticipated for the event and Jabil stepped in to pay the $5 parking fee for the 1,500 people who turned out for the event. Employees from Jabil volunteered in 2012 to clean up the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. The project involved landscaping, stocking and organizing the food pantry, cleaning the floors and re-arranging the children's play room. For the 2012 American baseball season, Jabil partnered with the Tampa Bay Rays and agreed to donate $500 to the Rays Baseball Foundation for the Rays' first base hit of every regular season game. The proceeds to be used for the Hits For Kids program which is part of the Rays' South St. Petersburg Impact Initiative. Jabil also partnered with the American Heart Association in 2012 to raise funds for the organization.

 

Jabil is also involved with charity and non-profit organizations outside of the Tampa / St. Petersburg area as well. They are a donor for the Guadalajara Los Pinos Boys Shelter in Los Pinos, Mexico. In Japan, Jabil Gotemba employees harvest and sell fruits to Jabil employees and use the proceeds to purchase and donate wheelchairs to the Gotemba community. Jabil employee Rick Smiley climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011 to raise money for charity. The funds that he raised went to an orphanage in Kenya called "New Hope."

 

As part of the company's global initiative, more than 7,000 Jabil employees donates money to help the victim's of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The total amount raised was $65,391 USD and was raised in a total of five days. Additional global philanthropy efforts include Jabil donating coats to improvised children in China during the winter months, donating backpacks to needy children, and donating much needed funds to public schools in China.

 

 

Jabil Green Point Wuxi and Wuxi Konggang Industrial Park teamed up to build the Shuofang Agricultural Sanatorium for the Disabled and the Health and Happiness Garden on site. The facility opened on May 15th, 2012. In addition to helping construct the facility, Jabil Green Point Wuxi and Wuxi Konggang Industrial Park also provided full basic pension, living allowances and medical insurance for disabled students. Other Jabil Wuxi efforts include multiple donations to the Red Cross and donating money to help schools in the Wuxi area (including the Xu China Bridge Primary School for Migrant Students). The Jabil Wuxi manager Liu Junyan has also donated bursaries for college students in need.

 

Awards and recognitions

Jabil has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions. They were the first ever recipient of the Mexican government's National Quality Award which was given to them in 2006. This award is given to organizations recognized for their total quality management practices.

 

The company was awarded with the Excellence in Best Practices Award from Frost & Sullivan in 2009. This award is presented each year to companies who are identified as encouraging significant growth, identified emerging trends, and created advanced technologies for their industries. Jabil also received the 2009 Market Leadership of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan. The company also received an HR award in Poland and a NEC Solution America's Favored Supplier Award. Jabil was given three additional awards in 2009 which consisted of the National Quality Award given to Jabil Tiszaújváros as well as the Silver Award in Workplace Safety and Health Performance and the Secure Trade Partnership Plus Certification from Singapore Customs awarded to their Singapore subsidiary.

 

Jabil was awarded with the 2010 Save Energy Now Award by the United States Department of Energy. This award is presented to companies who are assessed by the US DOE as having significant energy reduction activities. In 2011, Jabil was also the presenter of an award when they presented U.S. Representative for Florida's 10th District C.W. Bill Young with the National Association of Manufacturers Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. The award was presented to Young after addressed 350 Jabil employees telling them about the important work that they do and how it keeps the soldiers of the United States Military safer.

 

Jabil made the list of Newsweek S&P 500 Green Companies in 2011. It was the 3rd consecutive year for Jabil to be on the list, improving each year from number 200 to number 127 in 2011. They were also given the 2010-2011 Annual Enterprise of Harmonious Labor Relation of Guangzhou City award.

 

In 2012, Jabil was recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the Fortune 500 Most Admired Companies. They are ranked at number 157 on the list of Fortune 500 companies and #1,231 on the Forbes Global 2000. Jabil was also awarded with the 2012 Kaizen Award in China by 1MFG and Masaaki lmai’s Kaizen Institute Consulting Group (KICG). In 2012, Tim Main, former CEO and current Chairman of the Board, and Bill Morean, former Chairman of the Board of Directors, won Entrepreneur of the Year Awards from Ernst & Young, LLC for the Florida region.

 

In 2012, the Chiefist ranked Jabil Chairman of the Board Tim Main (CEO at the time) as one of the Best Mid-Cap CEO's, a ranking that establishes the top 10 best CEO's based on company share price and total return to shareholders.

 

Acquisitions and expansion

Jabil has acquired numerous companies and arms of companies. Their acquisitions have helped them expand their presence in countries such as China, Mexico, India, the Netherlands and Russia to name a few. In 2011, Jabil opened a Photovoltaic Certification and Testing Laboratory in St. Petersburg, FL.