Disrupting German Manufacturing Through One-Stop Scale: Florian Weiss, HANZA (BMK)

What if you could move a complex hardware product from dispersed vendors to one accountable partner—and do it in three months? I sit down with Florian Weiss, HANZA's Head of Business Development Region Central Europe to unpack how BMK scaled a Raspberry Pi-based platform beyond PCBA into a complete, end-to-end manufacturing solution that absorbs production and logistics so teams can focus on sales, R&D, and marketing. The story isn’t theory; it’s the playbook for turning hundreds of components and many suppliers into a single, flexible pipeline that ships thousands of units, yet still delivers in quantities as low as one.

We dig into the mechanics of transfer—tooling and test migration, supplier onboarding, firmware alignment, and NPI gates—then connect the dots to real business outcomes: cleaner change control, shorter lead times, and late-stage customization that protects cash. From there, we zoom out to the strategic fit between BMK and HANZA. With HANZA's strengths in sheet metal, mechanics, and cable harnesses across Germany, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia, the combined team brings vertical integration without overlap, unlocking cross-selling across BMK’s 400-customer base and cutting total cost of ownership with a local footprint.

Expect practical insights on how to stabilize supply chains for complex electronics, build resilience through regional capacity, and shift from siloed sourcing to a unified manufacturing model. Whether you manage a fast-scaling device or a mature product with variant complexity, the takeaways are clear: consolidate accountability, keep design velocity high, and use flexible fulfillment to match real demand. 

If this kind of integrated manufacturing strategy could change your roadmap, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review with the one question you want us to tackle next.

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

EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)

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

Transcript

Meet Orion And BMK’s Focus

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 0:07

Orion, thanks for taking the time to chat. It was a pleasure to meet you, and it was really interesting to hear you talk about BMK and how you fit into the hands of family. You talked about several products.

Raspberry Pi Product And Beyond PCBA

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 0:19

One was a product based on the Raspberry Pi that really brings together the holistic nature of manufacturing that goes way beyond PCBA. Tell me a little bit about that.

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 0:29

Yeah, so um it's it's uh what we always wanted to do in BMC. Um, we are not just focusing on the PCBA, we said um outsourcing the Kantas manufacturing model, we did it for electronics, and this was the

Taking Over Production And Logistics

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 0:42

perfect fit. So the customer had a problem. Um, and we said, okay, we take over the production, we take over the logistics, customer can concentrate on being uh active in sales, in the new development, in the marketing, and uh so this is the perfect fit. And no, we just started um we did the transfer within I think three months. Um, the the whole production was moved from the customer to BM car. Now we are running uh a few thousand pieces, um, and uh both are happy.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 1:10

Yeah, and it goes way beyond the P the PCBA on both sides, from the design side all the way through to the aftermath. Exactly side. And that's that's a really important part of the the integration cycle, I guess.

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 1:22

So that's what what we said. Um we we want to do the PCBA, but we also do the supply chain, and this is uh a few hundred components and many different suppliers.

Supply Chain Depth And Flexible Shipping

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 1:31

We combine everything at BMK and we take care of double logistics, so we produce a few thousands, but we can ship starting from one up to five hundred. Um and it's also a very complex product, um, but uh this is what uh what we are targeting for.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 1:46

Yeah, yeah, and I think it really fits well into what you're doing within the Hansa family as well, because that's that vertical integration is certainly a superpower they have, and being able to do those different elements is is is really valuable.

Why BMK And Hansa Fit

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 2:00

Um why do you believe BMK or BMK, sorry, to use the English, uh is such a strong partner and such an obvious choice for Hansa in Germany?

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 2:12

Yeah, it's it's really um, you know, BMK and Hanser, so we didn't meet each other on the on the market because uh Hansa was focusing mainly on mechanics, but they have the same model that started with outsourcing and uh BMK, we we are one of the biggest in Germany for electronics. And this is really the great fit we have because together we can go to our customer base and we can not just not just offer electronics, we can now also add something to the BMK portfolio. We have around about 400 customers.

Cross-Selling And Regional Footprint

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 2:42

But yeah, they all know BMK is uh good in electronics, but now we can come and we can say, okay, we have a manufacturing concept, uh, we can add sheet metal, mechanics, cable harnesses, but we can also add different regions. So if we have customers who are out there in the Eastern Europe or in Scandinavia, uh we can tell them, okay, even if you have that um with a local footprint and to reduce your TCO, so we have just let's say made BMK even better.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 3:10

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you there. And I think it's really interesting that there's very little overlap, and that gives you a huge cross-selling

Disrupting German Industry And Close

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 3:16

opportunity. When I first saw the news that um of the acquisition of BMK, I thought, great, you get that 300 million euros of electronics business, but potentially there's a huge amount of mechanical business from those existing customers, and everybody adds to everybody else. Um, so I think you know that's a really exciting opportunity.

Florian Weiss, BMK Management Board Member 3:36

Absolutely, and maybe we have customers we really have not a high-volume business in electronics, but uh maybe they have a huge demand in in mechanics, and this is what we could add now. So it's just about to spread that information out to the market and to explain to everyone that we have that disrupting manufacturing model for the German industry now, and then we are ready to go.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcaster 3:57

Exciting to see the German industry shaken up a little bit and uh and that disruption occurs. So looking very much for that. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you.