GEORGETOWN: Diversified group Flex Ltd plans to grow its workforce by more than 10% between April 2022 and March 2023 to support its growth in Malaysia.

       Flex has 20,000 employees in Malaysia, of which 10,000 are in Penang, and the remaining in Johor.

       Flex Asia Global Operations senior vice-president T Y Lai said the prospects of growth in Malaysia is excellent, and the group wanted to expand its portfolio.

       “We are also seeing very positive growth from existing customers, especially in the cloud and computing industries, which are driven by new technology from some of our original equipment manufacturing customers, fuelled by strong demand for new 5G-enabled devices,” he said.

       Lai added that the majority of the new headcount would be Malaysians.

       “We are looking for design engineers, electrical and electronics engineers, mechanical engineers, technical talents, etc.

       In Penang, Flex will be manufacturing healthcare products for a new customer at the Bukit Minyak plant.

       Geared for expansion: The Flextronics Systems (Penang) Sdn Bhd plant in Batu Kawan Industrial Park.

       “The product is a continuous glucose monitoring device beneficial to people living with diabetes.

       The smart, simple and discrete device allows real-time monitoring and can transmit information to connected smart devices so that one can closely monitor the glucose reading from virtually anywhere,” Lai said.

       According to Lai, in Johor, Flex has recently clinched new business wins, including manufacturing hydro panels, semiconductor equipment, industrial cameras, and vacuum cleaners.“In Senai, Johor, we build healthcare products to combat Covid-19.

       “These include products that help in the Covid-19 PCR test, patient blood analysis, and patient monitoring. In addition to that, we are also assembling CMOS camera modules for state-of-the-art medical equipment,” Lai said.

       For the financial year 2022 third quarter ended Dec 31, Flex achieved a US$6.6bil (RM27.7bil) revenue, up 6% sequentially.

       Since its establishment in Malaysia in 1990, Flex has invested RM4.6bil into its operations here and worked with global brands in healthcare, industrial, lifestyle and consumer devices, communications, enterprise and cloud.

       Among the products manufactured in Malaysia are servers, complex ethernet switches, advanced sever storage system, high-end audio products (soundbars, headphones, bass box), advanced medical equipment and devices, large format printers and high-end vacuum cleaners.？

       Products manufactured are shipped globally to the Americas, Europe and other parts of Asia.

       Lai is responsible for global operations in Asia. He manages 30 factories spanning five countries, with some 55,000 employees, generating over US$8bil (RM33.6bil) in revenue yearly.