ODM

"Original Design Manufacturer" - a term invented by Flextronics International, one of the largest Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) providers in the industry (stock symbol FLEX).  An ODM designs a generic version of a product that is often outsourced to an EMS for production.  The OEM (original equipment manufacturer) can use the ODM design to cut time and cost out of their development cycle where the core functions of a product are a commodity anyway and focus on their unique IP (intellectual property) or other value-add.  A popular implimentation of this model is contracting the ODM to make a variation in the off-the-shelf ODM design and take it through NPI (new product introduction aka Prototyping).  The EMS also can leverage its experience in building, testing, and stocking inventory for the ODM design to gain an advantage for soliciting the EMS production business of the OEM.

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