Defense electronics is moving faster than the supply chain can comfortably handle, and the numbers are forcing a rethink of what “normal” growth looks like. I sat down with Peter Nilsson, President & CEO of Kitron Group to unpack a dramatic jump in defense-related revenue, what’s driving it, and how an EMS provider can scale without getting trapped by over-concentration or runaway complexity.

We get specific about where the demand is coming from: legacy defense primes with long ramps and long program lives, plus a newer wave of defense tech companies building products at startup speed. That difference changes everything for electronics manufacturing services, from how you plan capacity to how you support rapid product development and transition into repeatable production. We also talk about the less glamorous reality behind big order books: lead times, component shortages, and the pain of distributor decommitments even after parts have been on order for a year.

From there, we explore what modern operations teams are doing to stay ahead, including AI agents embedded in ERP to chase recommits, validate the master schedule weekly, and trigger automatic replanning. We also zoom out to broader growth drivers like AI and data centers, and why industrial IoT, connectivity, and data-center infrastructure hardware are creating demand far beyond the server rack. Finally, Peter shares how they think about organic growth versus M&A, what makes an acquisition worth integrating, and why brand expectations around performance and reliability can’t slip during expansion.

If you care about defense manufacturing, EMS strategy, electronics supply chain resilience, and scaling production under pressure, hit play. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a review, then tell us what supply chain risk keeps you up at night?

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.

MADE IN EUROPE is a Global Electronics Association podcast hosted by Philip Stoten and produced and published by SCOOP. For more information on Global Electronics Association visit https://www.electronics.org/

What if your supply chain felt like one well-run factory instead of a maze of vendors and shifting promises? I sit down with founder and CEO Erik Stenfors at Hanza's Capital Markets Day in Stockholm to unpack a simple but powerful idea: build a manufacturing partner the way a buyer wishes it worked. That means vertical integration where it counts, smart outsourcing where it helps, and a single accountable brain coordinating many capable hands.

We walk through the evolution from scattered globalization to an orchestrated model that turns fixed costs variable, reduces delivery risk, and makes room for growth. As Erik explains, HANZA's framework runs on three axes—geography, technology, and capacity—so investments land where customers feel them most. HANZA 2025 was a phase focused on capacity and balance, HANZA 2028 shift toward technology, adding processes that expand the scope of supply and collapse handoffs. Not every site needs every tool; instead, clusters keep a common backbone while deepening specialities that remove real bottlenecks in electronics, mechanics, and final assembly.

Voice of customer sits at the center. We share a standout story where a client moved from roughly forty suppliers to one orchestrated solution, gaining shorter lead times, clearer data, and fewer escalations. Acquisitions matter only when they extend the backbone or sharpen regional coverage without diluting standards. The aim stays constant: a consolidated supply chain that behaves like an integrated plant, priced like a flexible network, and measured by outcomes buyers actually care about—reliability, responsiveness, and total landed cost.

If you’re ready to rethink how you scale, reduce risk, and free your team to focus on design and market instead of firefighting, press play.

Subscribe for more candid operations strategy, share this with a teammate who’s drowning in vendors, and drop a review to tell us what capability you want added next.

This podcast is part of series recorded at HANZA's Capital Markets Day in Stockholm on March 10th 2026.

MADE IN EUROPE is a Global Electronics Association podcast hosted by Philip Stoten and produced and published by SCOOP. For more information on Global Electronics Association visit https://www.electronics.org/

Energy prices can spike overnight, shipping lanes can become political flashpoints, and suddenly the “normal” electronics supply chain starts to look fragile. I sit down with Alison James, Senior Director for European Government Relations at the Global Electronics Association to talk through what the latest geopolitical tensions could mean for European manufacturing, including the quiet but critical dependencies many people forget, like petrochemicals across the electronics value chain and helium for the semiconductor industry.

From there, we move into the policy engine room: the European Chips Act review and the next proposal expected from the European Commission as part of a broader tech sovereignty package. We unpack why this matters beyond semiconductor fabs, and why printed circuit boards, EMS, IC substrates, and advanced packaging have to be in the conversation if Europe wants real supply chain resilience instead of isolated capacity.

We also dig into the surge in defense-driven demand and what it means that Europe’s first defense industry program explicitly includes electronics capacity building, with funding and a call that names PCBs and IC substrates.

Then we turn to automotive, where EV competition and new “Made In Europe” style procurement rules could reshape sourcing decisions, define what “origin” means, and create tough trade-offs across a global electronics ecosystem. If you care about European electronics manufacturing, industrial strategy, or how policy becomes real constraints and real opportunity, this is a practical roadmap. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the one policy change you think would help most.

MADE IN EUROPE is a Global Electronics Association podcast hosted by Philip Stoten and produced and published by SCOOP. For more information on Global Electronics Association visit https://www.electronics.org/