Mexico. Flex is the third largest multinational manufacturing company for technology products and equipment in the world. The company operates in more than 40 countries, including Mexico, with approximately 200,000 employees. Its mission is to offer innovative designs, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics services to companies of all sizes in different vertical markets.
A difficult path to innovation
The Regional Safety Operations Center (RSOC) is responsible for monitoring the departures of personnel from the production area of the Flex plant, where traditional technologies such as metal detector arches and a local visualizer on the floor were available. The plant's security personnel conducted daily review of a population of 5,234 employees through traditional safety pre-established procedures. Centralized employee review management simplifies security processes for the enterprise.
Six years ago, Flex decided to restructure its security organization and activities recognizing opportunities and strengths, understanding that it was necessary to innovate methods to protect the assets of its customers appropriately and stop doing so in a traditional way. With outdated standards review procedures, it was shown that robust security personnel did not guarantee to proactively alert of inventory losses in small quantities such as non-metallic objects (fabrics, plastics) or components undetectable by metal detectors, such as needles and coils. To meet these challenges, a comprehensive security solution was required that, together with Axis, would allow the company to offer employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders a safe, reliable, free and belonging workplace.
Strategic vision for the future
In the constant search for improvement in security practices, Flex found a comprehensive solution with Axis, complying with the great business rule: win-win, being customers and suppliers at the same time. This solution has allowed the reduction of security guard positions by 80%. Currently, the integral solution that has been implemented is a base greater than 500 IP cameras in the two buildings in Guadalajara; north campus and south campus, always in compliance with the EIA/TIA568A-568B standard and based on best practices for the implementation of these systems, when any of the requirements exceed the appropriate distances. High definition (HD), multi-sensor, motion (PTZ) video technologies and the solution-specific case with AXIS Q2901-E thermal imaging cameras, allow Flex personnel to perform their tasks, in the best way and with the highest security management. All this Axis technology deployed and integrated into milestone Corporate's video system management platform allows it to be integrated into the S2 access control platform as well.
Delivering added value with Axis
In an environment where risk is continuous, Axis technologies have demonstrated the ability to build the support of security programs, which offer continuous improvement performance in the service provided by Flex's surveillance department. The solutions implemented through IP have revolutionized the way the company manages its security, where the area of surveillance has gone from being a cost to an area that adds value to the company.
Salvador Morales, Senior Director of Brand Protection & Security at Flex, expressed feeling satisfied with Axis technologies and projects his vision for the future: "We will continue to work with our integrators and Axis in a very punctual and specific way to get the best out of the analytics in thermal imaging cameras, since we believe that we can exploit and obtain better results from the solution we have in other products and plants around the world, We have even developed tests to detect illegal substances hidden by our employees with positive results", adding: "Axis equipment is very friendly and easy to configure, with a good technical understanding in the integration platforms and has the great advantage of being compatible with the systems we handle at Flex".
In general, the comprehensive IP video surveillance solution implemented by Flex has provided great operational benefits, improving the company's security processes, optimizing the work of security personnel, as well as allowing the reuse of the infrastructure that the company had previously.
