Austin, TX — Renting a car after a long flight is often tedious and time-consuming. Locating the rental car office, waiting in long lines, filling out sheaves of paperwork, and finally locating the car itself is not easy or convenient. Enter Silvercar by Audi, an innovative company that plans to revolutionize the rental car industry. With a seamless, app-driven system, customers can get behind the wheel of a premium Audi A4, Q5 SUV, Q7 SUV, or A5 Cabriolet quickly and easily. East/West Manufacturing Enterprises partnered with Silvercar from the beginning, providing full turnkey electronics manufacturing services. This enabled the company to execute its business plan and succeed in the rental car market.
Strategic Partnership
Founded in Austin, Texas, in 2012, Silvercar was acquired by Audi in 2017. The company rapidly expanded into 26 cities across the United States. Setting out to modernize the airport car rental process, Silvercar provides white glove, short-term, premium Audi car rental service to travelers. "We wanted to deliver a fast, frictionless and consistent experience to our customers," says Chris Collins, director of IT security and compliance at Silvercar. "This is a customer experience that does not involve lines, paperwork or the other standard maladies of car rental. We decided that the best way to improve this experience was to handle the rental process using smartphones and to build an app that would modernize the entire process." To implement the groundbreaking idea, Silvercar designed a next-generation cloud-based software and hardware solution that allows communication between the rental vehicles and the company's smartphone app. The process is easy. The user downloads the app to book, manage and unlock their Audi rental car — no lines, no paperwork and no hassle. A Silvercar shuttle takes the customer to their exact vehicle, which is unlocked by a QR code. Returning the vehicle is just as easy. The car is left at a designated drop off point and a shuttle takes the customer back to the airport.
Building the Hardware
To build the hardware to make this possible, Silvercar chose Austin-based East/West Manufacturing Enterprises. "Initially we chose East/West based on a recommendation from an embedded hardware consultant who has worked with the company on other projects," says Collins. "East/West helped us to understand the manufacturing process and the team was willing to be flexible, while we figured out our business model."
As Silvercar grew and needed to manufacture more hardware, East/West accommodated the increased volume, along with taking on shipping and refurbishing processes. "Since our whole customer experience centers around ease of use, we need the hardware we rely on to function as expected all the time," he continues. "East/West consistently delivers a quality product that our business leverages day in and day out." East/West has remained Silvercar's manufacturing partner even as the company has expanded into new cities. "East/West has been Silvercar's manufacturing partner since the very beginning of our company," says Collins. "Recently we went through an exercise to evaluate East/West along with other contract manufacturers. During that process we met with and toured several other potential suppliers. After an extensive evaluation, we chose to continue partnering with East/West for a multitude of reasons, including their friendly and professional staff, flexibility, quick turnaround, and ability to help us reduce cost and improve the quality of our hardware. It is also important to us that East/West continues to improve their facility with updated manufacturing processes, including additional inspection equipment." "At East/West we understand that product quality is paramount and must be matched with on-time delivery and low cost," says Salo. "East/West's capabilities include NPI for small- to mid-volume orders to full production. Our success is built on a relationship of trust that we earn by consistently meeting customer requirements and being flexible enough to help them achieve their goals." East/West provides industry-leading electronics manufacturing services and optimized supply chain solutions for companies in a wide range of industries, including industrial and commercial OEMs, medical, automotive, and military-related device manufacturers. The company's employees are IPC-certified and have an average industry tenure of over 15 years. Also, East/West is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016. East/West Manufacturing Enterprises brings many years of experience to customers and is committed to enabling the customer's market success with end-to-end manufacturing solutions. In today's fast-paced industry, it is uncommon to find a company that places customers and quality first. East/West prides itself on doing just that. Its history and volume manufacturing expertise benefit projects of all sizes, and it leverages market-leading kanban and lean manufacturing strategies to stay lean and focused. "Silvercar by Audi is an amazing business partner," says Richard Tsukano, East/West's Vice President of Business Development. "The entire Silvercar by Audi team is very open and easy to communicate with. Simply put, we admire them as a company, and greatly appreciate their strong support and collegial approach to working together and finding solutions. At East/West, we are working hard to contribute to their continued success."
Contact: East/West Manufacturing Enterprises, 11100 Metric Boulevard, Suite 200C, Austin, TX 78758 512-258-2303 E-mail: rtsukano@ewme.com Web: http://www.ewme.com
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