Katalin Tóth, István Gyurján, and György Nagy at the Sigma Technology office in Budapest
For almost a decade, the Flex Design Center in Budapest has partnered with Sigma Technology as its consulting partner. The collaboration has supported numerous projects across the cloud, automotive, and communications sectors. In this article, we speak to István Gyurján, Site Director at the Flex Design Center in Budapest.
István, welcome. Can you tell us a little about Flex and your Design Center in Budapest?
Certainly. Flex Ltd. is a global leader in electronics manufacturing and design services, operating in over 30 countries and serving a diverse portfolio of customers across multiple sectors. We design and manufacture products for other brands and offer a range of integrated products and services of our own that serve the power, heat, and cooling needs of Data Center customers, reducing carbon footprints while supporting high-density computing.
The largest concentration of Flex operations in Europe is in Hungary, with manufacturing logistics, services, and, of course, design, based at our Design Center in Budapest. The Design Center serves as our innovation hub across telecommunications, enterprise servers, automotive, and AI-driven manufacturing.
Have you always worked in product design?
I guess you could say I have always been aligned with design in some way. After graduating from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) with an MSc in Electrical & Electronics Engineering, I stepped straight into the hardware side, working at Ericsson. I began as an FPGA developer and deepened my hardware design skills before becoming a firmware engineer. I moved on to designing hardware and embedded software for medical devices, and then went into software development before joining Flex, just over ten years ago.
Can you tell us about the Flex Budapest Design Center?
The center in Budapest was originally part of Flex’s Communications, Enterprise, and Cloud (CEC) segment, focused on telecom devices. We then expanded into enterprise servers, storage, 5G radios, and, more recently, automotive projects such as autonomous driving and electric vehicle power electronics. It’s been an incredible progression.
As the site director, my focus is to continue shipping reliable systems while raising engineering quality and helping our people develop and grow their skills and experience.
But do you partner for skills, too?
As we grew and expanded our design capability, we needed to scale our capacity and quickly add additional engineering skills. That resulted in a partnership with Sigma Technology Hungary, which has been a long and rewarding collaboration. I feel our needs, values, and ways of working are understood.
The Sigma team’s integrity, consistency, and sense of ownership in joint projects are appreciated, and our teams work very well together.
What is the key to a successful partnership?
Really, it is a combination of things. First and foremost, you need the right skills in place. After that, it’s about attitude and focus, good communication, and being open. When there are no inhibitors to open communication, where ideas can flow, you get closer to innovation and better ways of doing things.
I think a good partnership is one where both sides learn from each other, trust each other, and even inspire each other. For example, we value Sigma’s support for training and in-house initiatives such as AI development, and, interestingly, our new office setup is inspired by your office, with transparent walls and shared spaces!
Where else can you see good examples of partnership?
Sigma Technology consultants have played key roles in Flex’s sustainability initiatives, including the Digital Twin project. This initiative creates virtual production line instances to track power consumption and carbon footprint for AI product manufacturing, supporting Flex’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
We’re also working together with AI to enhance the efficiency of electronics manufacturing. AI is a strategic driver of innovation and growth across Flex. We see it as a boost to current operational efficiency and as an engine for faster development and improved reliability.
What’s next?
We have firmly established the Budapest Design Center within Flex, and our team is now having a global impact on our customers. We have grown from 23 to 85 members, and that growth is set to continue as we work on more automotive and enterprise product development projects. Our partnership with Sigma Technology will undoubtedly continue to support more major project completions and future expansion opportunities.
Katalin Tóth, Unit Manager at Sigma Technology Hungary, adds:
“We are proud to be Flex’s long-term partner and appreciate our shared commitment to innovation and creating sustainable technology solutions for a better tomorrow. We are looking forward to our continued cooperation, supporting Flex’s advancements in the field of automotive, communications, and AI.”
