ESCATEC in the News

The United Nations Global Compact Network Malaysia on 22 January 2019 presented two Certificates of Recognition to ESCATEC for its efforts in addressing climate change and improving human rights within the organization.    The UN Global Compact (UNGC) is a voluntary United Nations pact to encourage companies worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies and to report annually on their implementation. It is the world’s largest corporate social responsibility initiative with over 13,000 corporate and other participants in some 170 countries.   The UNGC states ten principles - covering the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption – which companies are encouraged to adopt and instill in their business operations. ESCATEC signed on to the UNGC in 2013 and regularly expresses its commitment to integrate the ten principles into its strategy, culture and day-to-day operations.    The two Certificates of Recognition awarded to ESCATEC specifically commends the group’s initiatives over the past several years to improve the Environment and Human Rights aspects of its operations.   In the area of Human Rights, ESCATEC’s initiatives include adopting strict personal data protection standards and providing training to the Human Resource Department at all its facilities on how to best administer these standards. As a result, employees are assured that their personal data is confidential and will solely be used for employment purposes within the group.   Also in 2017, ESCATEC conducted internal audits on all of its foreign worker dormitories to ensure these are clean and safe and provided with appropriate emergency, adequate ventilation and reasonable personal space. All issues relating to the dormitories are formally recorded and attended to promptly, resulting in a real positive impact on the living conditions of ESCATEC’s foreign workers.   In addition, ESCATEC encourages various company sponsored sporting and exercise activities to improve health awareness among its employees.   ESCATEC further in 2017 committed to a Conflict Minerals Policy to address human rights concerns associated with minerals sourced from conflict-affected locations. The sales of such minerals can contribute to the perpetuation of armed violence, instability, insecurity and associated human rights violations. As a guiding policy, ESCATEC is committed in ensuring ethical sourcing and has made significant progress in developing supply chain transparency.   As for environmental protection, ESCATEC remains strongly committed to the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation (REACH) programmes.     Both RoHS and REACH have the goal of protecting communities and the environment from potentially harmful chemical substances, and makes industry responsible for managing these risks and to provide relevant safety information to users and consumers. The REACH programme further prioritizes the progressive phase-out of the most dangerous chemicals once suitable alternatives are found.   ESCATEC continuously strives to ensure that the parts obtained from suppliers for the assembly of products are REACH and RoHS compliant, this does not just involve receiving declarations from its suppliers but requires lab reports and at times full material disclosure of the manufactured parts. Awareness and training is provided to ESCATEC’s suppliers on the importance of complying with the group’s RoHS and REACH programmes.   Another notable achievement in 2017 comes from ESCATEC’s facility in Johor receiving the “Notable Achievement in Environment Performance Award”, presented as a component of the annual Prime Minister’s Hibiscus Award. This is the premier environmental award for business and industry in Malaysia.   At the group level, ESCATEC also established an Environmental Management Program (EMP) to  identify, monitor and control the environmental performance of its business units. Most commendably, all of ESCATEC’s business units in 2017 achieved the new ISO 14001:2015 standard for environmental management systems.   Moving forward, ESCATEC will continue to uphold and implement the ten principles of the UNGC. While ESCATEC’s intention is to be a good corporate citizen, receiving awards and recognition does act to motivate the group and its employees to greater effort in this regard.  

ESCATEC, the global electronic and box-build solution provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Verkuijlen as the new General Manager (GM) of ESCATEC Mechatronics in Johor Bahru (MY). With the addition of Mr. Verkuijlen, ESCATEC continues to expand and strengthen the Group’s Senior Management Team. The new GM assumes his responsibilities immediately and reports to the Chief Operating Officer, Juha Arola.

ESCATEC, the global electronic and box-build solution provider, announced recently its newly appointed General Manager (GM) and latest addition to its Senior Management Team, Lambert Schutters. Mr. Schutters assumes the responsibilities of Johan Halling, who stepped down as GM of ESCATEC Electronics and ESCATEC Medical in Penang. Mr Halling continues to support the ESCATEC Group temporarily with his invaluable insight and experience, ensuring operational continuity and a smooth on-boarding for the new GM who is reporting directly to Juha Arola, COO of the ESCATEC Group. Mr. Schutters has joined ESCATEC from Siemens, where he held the position of Managing Director at one of their Budapest, Hungary, factories. He has over 25 years of experience in key management roles at leading manufacturing companies worldwide, including Flextronics and Phillips. He has accumulated not only leadership and business development skills, but also extensive knowledge in purchasing and supply chain management. Under his motivating leadership, manufacturing companies have achieved sustainable, highly productive and cost effective business.   “We are sad to hear of Johan’s decision to leave ESCATEC and wish him every success in his future endeavours. Moving forward, we welcome Lambert Schutters and are confident his strong focus on quality, cost, on time delivery and excellent communication will bring lasting value to our customers and to our employees,” says Juha Arola.

According to recent surveys, businesses will have a greater influence than governments in shaping the future of our society. And society has never kept such a watchful eye on companies to ensure companies are good corporate citizens. More than ever, it’s extremely important for OEMs to comply with global standards and regulations.   OEMs protect their brand reputations fiercely. And rightly so – quality, reliability and compliancy are key factors for their continued success. Without compliancy, hefty fines or suspensions could potentially occur, causing delays or even loss of a company’s competitive edge. It is therefore imperative for EMS partners to establish a bond of trust with OEMs. That being said, they must deliver the products OEMs demand; products that will safeguard their reputations.   But how can EMS providers stay globally compliant with constantly shifting regulatory requirements? Reliably managing the complexity and volume of compliance data takes an enormous amount of time and labour. Today’s digital world enables data to be managed by reputable supply chain data management solution providers. ESCATEC has taken steps to secure their customers’ trust by selecting one of the largest and most reliable supply chain data management companies on the market today: Assent Compliance.   Assent Compliance offers ESCATEC a combination of software, regulatory expertise and an extensive data network. Their platform solution adapts to support changing regulatory requirements and outputs results for ESCATEC. Assent Compliance communicates with a network of 300,000 supplier companies, and collects supply chain data for a variety of data types. Through the Assent Compliance Platform, ESCATEC can create and send comprehensive reports in real time with ease and the confidence of having the latest data at hand.