K-One: One-Stop for Product Design and Manufacturing Services
Ir. Edwin Lim Beng Fook, Co-Founder& ChairmanSince its inception, K-One has rapidly evolved to meet customer requirements by offering them a seamless one-stop solution for concerns ranging from design to manufacturing. Driven by a team of dedicated technical and management specialists sharing a common passion for excellence the company understands the various needs of the industry and market segments.
To keep abreast of the latest technologies and remain sustainable, the heart and soul of the company lies in innovation. K-One focuses on final assembly, printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), and quality assurance, while outsourcing most of the key secondary processes such as precision plastic molding to strategic manufacturing partners. Acknowledging the triple concerns of competency, competition, and cost faced by project management companies in the electronic manufacturing service (EMS) industry, K-One makes space for itself by training and upgrading its pool of technical staff to design and develop innovative electronic end products.
“Our product design service enables customers to stick to us for manufacturing, while our asset-light business model keeps our costs competitive,” explains Ir. Edwin Lim Beng Fook, co-founder and chairman of K-One. “We provide design and development (D&D) as well as manufacturing services, which covers wider ground when compared to product design houses that focus solely on D&D, or electronic manufacturing service providers that target manufacturing only.”
Great innovation only happens when people aren’t afraid to do things differently
The project management solutions proffered by the company can be categorized into three types—D&D, manufacturing, and a combination of the two.
K-One specializes in the application of IoT, sensors, lighting technology, and audio requirement. The company also has in-depth expertise in precision plastic molding and utilizes high-end machinery to carry out PCBA on the manufacturing side, which empowers customers by reducing their time to market, while making the product more cost-effective.
Driven by its motto to innovate, K-One’s uniqueness stems from its rich experience of dealing with multi-national companies, the skill set of its staff, consistent quality, as well as its varied certifications, such as ISO 9001, ISO 13485, TS 16949, OHSAS 18001 and ATEX, which further aids in gaining clients’ trust. K-One’s cost-competitive nature with an asset-light manufacturing business model, and a vast network of suppliers accumulated into the system that can be tapped into for competitive supplies adds another feather in its cap. The company continues to pique the interest of its clients with timely delivery of project milestones to achieve time-to-market based on its time-tested project management skills and experience, and the customer assurance of IPs protection.
K-One was approached by a client who wanted to develop equipment to measure the movement of the Earth in order to anticipate landslides or earthquakes. The challenge was to develop a piece of equipment with delicate electronics that was sufficiently protected to transmit accurate information to the command center to alert authorities in case of abnormal Earth movement, signifying potential earthquakes or landslides. At the same time, the equipment needed to be robust enough to withstand the harsh tropical weather conditions and remain waterproof as it was to be used outdoors. Over a few months, K-One came up with a design that successfully met both these requirements.
Scripting similar success stories, K-One is expanding into developing IoT gadgets, medical products, and automotive aggregates while still maintaining the momentum of its anchor products. K-One is systematically designing IoT-enabled products, with built-in sensors and AI that are connected to the cloud. “We are venturing into increased automation through robotics and using more sensors to improve our productivity and efficiency,” concludes Lim.
