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28 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2026 F E AT U R E A RT I C L E BY N O L A N J O H N S O N , I - C O N N ECT0 07 EMS Suppliers: Consider Selling Your Data as a Service As an EMS company, are you looking to sepa- rate yourself from the competitive pack in 2026? Beyond adding automation or lowering costs, you can create "stickiness" for your customers by ana- lyzing and selling your data. Despite the growth trajectory of the EMS mar- ket in North America, core EMS offerings—such as PCB assembly, testing, quality control, and ful- fillment—march toward commoditization. Indus- try analysts note that the differentiation margin is shrinking, with assembly capabilities and regional footprint no longer sufficient alone to sustain pre- mium pricing or customers that stick around for the long term. To consider selling your data, you must first look at what data you are gathering. Three key technol- ogy adoption trends are reshaping EMS operations that could create new opportunities in 2026 and beyond: 1. The advent of smart factories and AI-enabled quality control. EMS providers are deploying AI- driven inspection systems, real-time analytics, and predictive maintenance to elevate yield and reduce waste. These capabilities move an EMS provider from purely reactive quality toward proactive performance. 2. The ongoing digital transformation and the inte- gration of analytics allow for creative use of the data gathered in the assembly process. IoT sensor data, MES/ERP integration, and cloud platforms generate massive pools of opera- tional data; yet few EMS firms have converted this raw data into commercial offerings. 3. OEMs increasingly request real-time quality insights, supply chain forecasting, and perfor- mance dashboards to support their own engi- neering, quality, and logistics functions. This sig- nals a growing demand for whole-chain product lifecycle analytics. Yet most OEMS receive static reports, not predictive or prescriptive services.