11 Jul 2025
On 10 July, 2025, students from the "Doing Business in a Changing China " summer school programme, jointly organised by the International Business School Suzhou (IBSS) and the Department of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), collaborated on a meaningful enterprise visit journey to Etron Electronics Co., Ltd. The purpose of this visit was to avail our students the opportunity personally experience the operation in action. Allied to this, students were afforded the chance to gain in-depth insights into industry trends, and broaden their business acumen.
Etron is a local Chinese company who is able to serve global customers. They provide electronics manufacturing services to customers with exacting quality requirements. The company has been engaged in the field of Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) for more than 20 years, focusing on the innovation of manufacturing, processing, testing and verification technologies. It has also established a strong tech team to build an intelligent production system, and better meet the needs of its global customer base.
During the visit, students were given a deep dive into the production workshop, observed advanced production equipment and sophisticated work flows at close range, thereby helping them to better understand the production processes.. Mr Brandon and Mr Harrison, representatives of the corporate management trainees from the company's sales department elaborated on the EMS business engaged in by the enterprise, including Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA), Surface Mount Technology (SMT) processing steps, as well as automated optical inspection of product quality and maintenance links.
Calvin Han, CEO of Etron's overseas business operation, warmly received the teachers and students from IBSS. He gave an overview of the company's core business scope, global market layout, ?as well as touching on the future strategic development blueprint. Mr Han explained that notwithstanding the current economic headwinds, the company still maintains a steady growth rate of 15% and plans to increase the proportion of overseas business to 50% by 2028. In terms of talent cultivation and recruitment, Etron attaches importance to leveraging university talent and as such, recruits many outstanding students from well-known universities around the world every year. For instance, a ?group of excellent graduates from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University join Etron every year, and Mr Han also sincerely invites summer school students to intern at Etron to experience the global operation and vitality of the enterprise at close range.
In the interactive communication session, Etron invited representatives from various departments to take questions from the students. Students from the summer school actively asked questions and had robust and in-depth discussions with enterprise experts on key issues such as revenue growth, operational challenges, and workstreams. Combining their rich practical experience, enterprise experts provided students with valuable suggestions and tailored guidance, proving them with food-for-thought in relation to their future career development paths.
"Visiting Etron is an extremely inspiring experience. The company's focus on globalisation and its rapid development are impressive, with manufacturing facilities in countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Romania, and Mexico. I am very grateful to the Etron team for sharing their insights and for taking the time to answer our various questions clearly and honestly. Thank you for bringing us here for this visit and exchange!" said Nelyda Georgina, from Mexico.
"I really enjoyed all the enterprise visits, especially the Etron. It's a rare opportunity to witness how work is organized and carried out, especially in this era of robots and artificial intelligence. I'm glad to learn more about innovative technologies and forward-looking concepts." said Sofia Balasso, from Italy.
The in-depth interaction between XJTLU summer school students and Etron not only allowed the students to get close to the pulse of the global development of Chinese intelligent manufacturing enterprises, but also built a communication bridge between theory and practice; and between campus and enterprise.
11 Jul 2025