Jabil Inc. is a global manufacturing services company based in the United States. It is one of the largest companies in the Tampa Bay area, with headquarters in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Florida. Jabil operates 100 plants in 30 countries and employs 260,000 people worldwide.
About the Company
Jabil is now the third-largest EMS provider in the world, with over $17 billion in revenue and over 140,000 employees worldwide. Sixty global operations in the Americas, Asia, and Europe design, manufacture, and ship products worth $60 million per day, including single-use devices for the healthcare industry, wind turbine engines for the energy market, innovative materials technologies for mobility products, and computing products.
The Journey
Jabil, the name of the company, is derived from the first names of James Golden and William (Bill) E. Morean, who founded it in 1966. The company’s original mission was to build and repair circuit boards for Control Data Systems in Detroit. For one customer, this was mostly accomplished through manual processes on a small scale.
In 1969, Jabil was formally incorporated in Detroit, and the PCBs were an early product of the company. Overall, the 1990s were a bumpy ride, with three major customers – NEC, Quantum Computing, and Zenith Data Systems – accounting for two-thirds of its revenue. In 1993, Jabil went public and in 1998, began to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JBL.
Throughout these years, Jabil expanded its engineering, design, and supply chain capabilities, as well as gaining expertise in new manufacturing technologies such as SMT. The company increased its workforce by 30% in the first half of 1995 alone as it began to expand its customer base. By the end of 1996, HP had become the company’s largest customer, and other data communications firms had also been added to the stable. In 2001, the company made it to the S&P 500 Index. In 2014, the company was demoted from the S&P 500 Index to the S&P MidCap 400 Index.
Sectors of economic development
Jabil’s customer base is spread into healthcare, life sciences, clean technology, instrumentation, defense, aerospace, automotive, computing, storage, consumer products, networking, and telecommunications, etc. Design engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain services for the EMS and consumer industries, as well as materials technology services, are among its offerings (plastics, metals, automation, and tooling). Jabil’s business is divided into three segments; Service, Design Engineering and Logistic and Supply Chain.
Service: Jabil provides design engineering services. The company offers industrial design services that focus on the aesthetics of plastic and metal enclosures that house circuit boards use. Jabil’s mechanical design services include electronic and optical assembly dimensional design and analysis. Jabil’s computer-aided design services include printed circuit board assembly design, testing, and verification, as well as other consulting services.
Design Engineering: Jabil has an industry-specific design team for each of the industries it serves, which includes computer and storage, digital home, healthcare and instrumentation, point of sale, and mobile. Jabil has provided design and engineering assistance to many Fortune 500 companies, including Sandy Creek, Cisco, etc.
Logistics and supply chain: Jabil is a company that provides supply chain and logistics services. Electronic procurement, virtual/vertical mechanics, logistics, supply chain management, advanced forecasting, efficiency, automated multinational processes, supply chain solutions, and market analytics are among the services offered. During the 2011 Tsunami and earthquake in Japan, examples of the company’s supply chain and distribution management became visible. When a supply chain disruption occurred, Jabil rerouted supply from alternative sources, allocated limited production to key customers and distributors, specified and quality alternative parts, and called on existing suppliers to assist in mitigating the impact of the disruptions.
Acquisitions and growth
Jabil has acquired several companies and business units till now. Their acquisitions have allowed them to establish a presence in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia, to name a few. Jabil opened a Photovoltaic Certification and Testing Laboratory in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2011. Jabil announced in February 2013 that it would buy Nypro for $665 million in cash and completed the transaction in July 2013.
Honors and recognition
Jabil has received numerous awards and accolades. In 2006, it became the first recipient of the Mexican government’s National Quality Award. This award is given to organizations that have demonstrated excellence in total quality management practices.
Frost & Sullivan awarded the company the Excellence in Best Practices Award in 2009. In addition, the company received an HR award in Poland and an NEC Solution America’s Favorite Supplier Award. The United States Department of Energy presented Jabil with the 2010 Save Energy Now Award.
The Brains Behind Jabil
In 1966, William E. Morean and James Golden founded the electronics assembly repair business Jabil in Detroit, Michigan. James sold his stake to E. Morean after only a few years, whereas the latter retired from active leadership in 2000, remaining on the board until 2014. Although E. Morean’s management style was appropriate for such a volatile and fast-growing period in the industry’s history, the true strategic vision of what would become Jabil did not emerge until his son William D. Morean joined the company in 1977. That is why, although his father was the actual founder, we regard William as the true Icon of the EMS industry within Jabil.
