Flex deepens Teradyne partnership

Flex and Teradyne Robotics said on April 22 that they had expanded their partnership to scale intelligent automation across global manufacturing. The companies said Flex will both deploy Teradyne Robotics systems inside its own factories and manufacture key robotics components for Teradyne Robotics customers worldwide. Universal Robots, known for collaborative robots, and Mobile Industrial Robots, which makes autonomous mobile robots, are the main brands in the arrangement. The agreement extends a relationship the companies said already spans more than 20 years in semiconductor equipment manufacturing. Flex said the broader tie-up is aimed at standardizing automation across its manufacturing footprint and speeding the replication of robotics workflows that have already been tested in production. (investors.flex.com) ### Why is Flex both a user and a supplier in this arrangement? Flex said the expanded relationship gives it a dual role: automation operator and manufacturing partner. In practice, that means Flex installs Teradyne Robotics technology in its own production environments while also building core components that Teradyne Robotics can ship into other customer deployments. (investors.flex.com) Flex said that setup creates a feedback loop. By running Universal Robots cobots and MiR autonomous mobile robots on its own factory floors, the company said it can generate operational data, validate performance at scale and help repeat successful automation workflows faster across sites. ### Which Teradyne Robotics businesses are involved? (investors.flex.com) Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots are named as the central Teradyne Robotics brands in the partnership. Flex said it already manufactures key components for Universal Robots and uses both UR cobots and MiR AMRs in Flex production environments. Teradyne’s investor materials and brand sites list UR and MiR as part of its robotics business, while recent company postings show the group continuing to market factory automation, interoperability and new U.S. operations capacity. (investors.flex.com) ### What did the companies say about the expansion? Dennis Kirkpatrick, president of Lifestyle, Consumer Devices, and Core Industrial at Flex, said the move builds on a long-standing manufacturing relationship with Teradyne. (investors.flex.com) He said the expansion combines Teradyne Robotics technology with Flex’s manufacturing footprint, execution capabilities and supply-chain operations. (investors.teradyne.com) Rodrigo DallOglio, Flex’s president of Operational Excellence & Transformation, said working with Teradyne Robotics as an automation partner would help Flex scale intelligent automation for customers in electronics, industrial equipment, data center infrastructure and other sectors. ### What does the deal show about how robotics is being deployed? (investors.flex.com) April 22 disclosures from Flex framed the partnership around manufacturing, systems integration and global supply-chain execution rather than an acquisition or a standalone robotics platform launch. Flex said it supports Teradyne with advanced manufacturing and systems integration for semiconductor test platforms and is now extending that collaboration into automation solutions. (investors.flex.com) That structure leaves factory deployment and scaling with an existing manufacturing partner. The companies described the expansion as a response to rising production complexity, higher scale requirements and demand for more flexible operations. ### What comes next from here? Flex’s investor news page lists the Teradyne Robotics announcement on April 22 among its recent corporate updates, and Universal Robots published its parallel notice on April 23. (investors.flex.com) The companies have not disclosed a deal value, site count or deployment timetable, but they have identified global manufacturing, electronics, industrial equipment and data center infrastructure as the next areas of focus. (investors.flex.com)