Manufacturing Spectrum

Preamble

In early conversations with our customers, we often hear:

We have our own unique manufacturing style. How would Autumn Labs fit in?

Short answer: Autumn Labs helps track production quality and throughput, no matter how you manufacture. We handle the entire setup with your internal and/or external team, so you get powerful insights without the hassle.

Long answer: Dive into our blog below ⬇️ and keep an eye out for the 🍰 cake analogies.

---

Different Styles

Businesses sit at different points on the manufacturing spectrum: some control every stage, while others outsource nearly everything. Each approach comes with trade-offs, and Autumn Labs is designed to adapt and help in every scenario.

"Building" products today is a global collaboration where specialized players each perform unique roles to get the product to the final customer:

• Marketing & Branding – Crafting the product's story.
• Design & Engineering – Turning concepts into manufacturable plans.
• Sourcing – Procuring materials and suppliers.
• Manufacturing – Producing the product.
• Logistics – Getting the product into customers' hands.

Only a few giants (think Samsung or Tesla) manage every aspect of this process. Most companies focus on specific areas and rely on partners to help with the rest — even Apple.

Below are some of the most common models we've come across and their nuances: OBM, CDM, JDM and ODM.

Note: Real-world partnership contracts are often more nuanced and might have few more shuffled responsibilities, but the following models represent the more common patterns we've seen companies use to build today.

1. OBM – All in-House

An Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM) owns and oversees the entire process: marketing, designing, sourcing, manufacturing and logistics. This vertical integration allows them to ensure consistent quality, maintain their brand identity, and respond quickly to market demands.

Pros:

• Maximum control and differentiation.
• Strong IP ownership.
• Easier to enforce quality standards.

Cons:

• High initial CapEx (factories, equipment, staffing investments).
• Operationally complex
• Slower to scale and launch due to setup overhead

Example: Samsung and Tesla. They might still source a few components, like graphics chips or seats, but they'll handle the final assembly themselves.

🛠️ Autumn Labs: For OBMs, efficiency and quality aren't optional—they're mission-critical. You're perpetually walking the tightrope between shaving costs and elevating the product experience. It's common for teams to pour time and money into building bespoke monitoring systems just to stay on top of operations. That's where Autumn Labs steps in. We layer real-time analytics directly onto your production stations to track downtime, throughput, quality shifts, and more. Think of it as Manufacturing Infrastructure as a Service: instant visibility, optimized performance, and continuous ROI at a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house engineering team.

2. CMO / CM – Providing Design

In this model, we introduce two key players:

• CMO/CM (Contract Manufacturing Organization): An external third-party who partners with a company to help manufacture the product.
• OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer): The company that owns the brand, design and marketing of the product.

Fun fact: The term Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) originated in the mid-20th-century automotive world, initially referring to companies like Ford or Toyota that made the original parts installed on new cars—those were the "OEM parts." As the supply chain matured, automakers began relying on OEM suppliers, trusted third-party manufacturers who produced those same parts to exact specifications. Now, an OEM part can mean they were made by the brand and/or authorized suppliers who make them to the brand's standards. Hence, the term's slipperiness today.

A CMO/CM isn't just a manufacturer; it's a design ally. While the OEM still owns most of the design and IP, the CM refines it and "Design(s) for Manufacturing" (DFM): tweaking designs to be easier, cheaper, and more reliable to build at scale. This collaborative approach blends technical insight with manufacturing know‑how to optimize cost, quality, and manufacturability. When trying to build electronic components, a CMO may be referred to as a EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service).

Pros:

• Speeds up the move from prototype to production.
• Reduces the risk of costly design flaws during scale-up.
• Leverages manufacturing expertise early in development.

Cons:

• Less technical control: your vision may morph into aligning with the CM's processes.
• You need to share design files and IP, which has confidentiality implications.
• OEMs are one step removed from production and may not be aware of errors or quality drifts.

Example: Google and Apple may follow this approach and leverage their CDM partners around the globe to help manufacture.

🛠️by Autumn Labs: CMs likely have a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), but here's the catch: their MES is built to serve all their clients, not just one OEM. Instead of access to their MES system, OEMs are handed MS Excel reports that might be too broad, outdated, and risk overlooking what's really happening on their specific line.

Rather than trying to connect to a CM's MES or waiting on FTP file transfers, Autumn Labs plugs directly into the factory stations—no MES access required. Both OEMs and CMs can then leverage our analytics engine to access real-time metrics on downtime, throughput, and quality drifts. OEMs can finally close the loop between product returns and manufacturing quality while tracking production targets in real time. Meanwhile, CMs can use the same powerful platform to optimize their lines and cut costs. It's a true win-win.

3. JDM – Collaborative Design

A Joint Design Manufacturer (JDM) works almost like a co-parent in the product creation process. Unlike CDM, where the OEM leads the design and the CM refines it, in JDM both sides collaborate from the ground up. The OEM and JDM share responsibility for ideation, design, and sometimes even IP ownership. This partnership often reduces time-to-market and allows access to the JDM's specialized R&D, but it comes with less exclusivity and more shared control. JDM model also lives in a middle ground where manufacturing lines can either be co-owned or hosted by one party. The details are more nuanced and often polished during the contracting stage.

Pros:

• Faster innovation cycles thanks to shared R&D.
• Access to proven design + manufacturing expertise.
• Shared risk and investment.

Cons:

• Blurry IP ownership—harder to fully "own" the product.
• Possible overlap with other OEMs if the JDM reuses similar tech.
• Dependence on the JDM for both design + production continuity.

Example: Many networking and telecom equipment makers (like Cisco) have historically partnered with JDMs in Asia for co-designing their routers, switches, and hardware.

🛠️ Autumn Labs: In JDM, design ownership is shared. This means mistakes, inefficiencies, or slips in production affect both sides. Autumn Labs acts as the common ground. Instead of relying on MS Excel reports or summaries, both OEM and JDM teams can plug into the same real-time stream of data from the stations on the line. OEMs gain visibility into how design choices impact yield and quality, while CMs use similar insights to accelerate and optimize throughput and cut waste. It's not just monitoring production, it's fueling collaborative innovation and protecting both partners' interests.

4. ODM – Just Branding

At the far end of the spectrum is Original Design Manufacturing (ODM). Here, the manufacturer designs, builds, and even sources the product entirely on their own. The OEM's role is almost exclusively marketing and branding, while the product is essentially a turnkey solution.

Pros:

• Lowest barrier to entry: no R&D, no design cost.
• Very fast to scale a product portfolio.
• Lets brands focus 100% on sales, distribution, and marketing.

Cons:

• Little to no IP ownership or differentiation.
• Product roadmaps dictated by the manufacturer, not you.
• Vulnerability if competitors use the exact same ODM product.

Example: Many Amazon's "private label", Amazon Basics, products (eg. cables & batteries) are ODM products. In a few rare cases, the same base product may be sold under dozens of different brand names.

🛠️ Autumn Labs: When Autumn Labs joins an ODM setup, it’s typically with the green light from both the manufacturer and the OEM. Once integrated, brands gain early visibility into the production of only their products (and nothing else), while ODMs unlock powerful insights to improve efficiency across all their lines. We stream real-time quality and throughput data directly from factory stations into dashboards tailored to each stakeholder, showing only what’s relevant to them. The result isn’t just smoother outsourcing and manufacturing — it’s a stronger, more collaborative relationship built on trust, making it possible to build faster, better, and easier.

Summary

Wrapping it up

No matter where you sit on the Manufacturing spectrum, Autumn Labs empowers you with the visibility and insights you need to optimize production and scale with confidence. Whether you own the entire process or rely on partners, our tools adapt to fit your model—saving time, reducing risks, and driving smarter decisions.

---

Ready to get started? Request access to see how Autumn Labs can transform your manufacturing operations.

Request Access