Lenovo ThinkPad manufacturing sites

Can anyone here confirm which site manufactures which series of the Lenovo ThinkPads? I have heard that IIPC in Shenzhen makes just the T series, but I failed to find any evidence on that.

It would also be great if anyone can shed the same light on the IdeaPads as well. Thanks in advance.

This page lists the official manufacturing sites: http://www.pc.ibm.com/ca/about_lenovo/locations.html

 

Richard,

My T61p bought in Dec 07 has DNA evidence from Singapore.

Alacrity

 

My R61 originated in Shenzhen, so I take it that they are built there too.

 

My understanding is that none of the OEM's actually manufacture laptops, except Asus and Compal. OEM's such as Lenovo, Dell, HP, Apple and Acer only order, configure and market laptops that are designed (sometimes with input from the OEM) and manufactured by ODM's (original design manuafacturers) such as Compal, Quanta, Wistron, etc.

The "factories" owned by OEM's only configure laptops, that is, add an HDD, CPU, RAM, disk image, Wifi card, etc. The factories where they are actually manufactured are operated by ODM's and are all located around Shenzhen and Taipei. Practically all the world's laptops are made there.

A single ODM factory may make notebooks for various OEM's (e.g. Dell, HP, Sony). Each OEM orders laptops from various ODM's; often, the same OEM model is ordered from at least two different ODM's (so that OEM's are not dependent on a single ODM).

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2127906,00.asp
http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/5605.asp
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS163949+07-Jan-2008+BW20080107
http://www.emsnow.com/newsarchives/archivedetails.cfm?ID=18911
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210580&highlight=compal+wistron+quanta

The last two links above show that Lenovo laptops are manufactured by Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Pegatron and Asustek, though, of course, I don't have personal knowledge of this.

 

Thanks Fuzzy - that was a real education. An interesting note was that Lenovo actually gets LCD modules from 4 different manufacturers - but I guess they only use the LG and Samsung in T-series.

 

As far as I know, Lenovo either holds the majority stake in or owns IIPC:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3444981

Also, last year dxboy said that the T Series is manufactured in Shenzhen: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2078411&postcount=16

I just want to know if there is a source to confirm this.

 

Compal or Hon Hai for the T. Wistron for the X. Final assembly on both by Lenovo itself on Shenzhen then transported across the border to ship out of Hong Kong to you. There is no DNA with respect to Singapore other than the MSFT OEM license is from Singapore. Bunch of legal reasons for that between MSFT, Lenovo, and China. Lenovo may just let the ODMs handle the whole thing in the future.

 

great info Fuzzy thanks

 

Cool, but can you point me to any source that confirms your comment? No offence but other people have said different things, and I just want to be able to quote from an official or reliable source.

 

You're welcome.

Now, if only we could find out how to identify the factories where various models of notebooks are made, or at least the ODM that made them, we would have a hope of predicting the reliability of the various models.

 

That is exactly what I was hoping someone would say too.

 

So no one can quote their sources?

 

I think it would be too disruptive if such information is leaked, which is a reason why OEMs never readily publish their ODM information. There's no business advantage in doing so.
Anyway, many such information would be published in Chinese where the whole ODM world is concentrated, so you are looking in the wrong place.

 

All I've seen is Compal Receives Notebook Orders from NEC, Lenovo

 

Well as a personal data point, I just received an email today from Lenovo which tells me my R61-14.1" just shipped from Shenzhen, China... to Hong Kong... and on its way to me. So it looks like my R61 was at least assembled and packaged somewhere in Shenzhen.

 

That info is very useful. Thanks a lot.

I guess I'll have to dig into Chinese websites. It's good to know several languages.

 

My point is that people who have said who made what have so far failed to say where they got the info from. I just want to know where all this info came from, so that in the future I can quote from there as well.

 

According to this article, Thinkpads are made in Shenzhen, China.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_08/b4072042350389_page_2.htm

The article says that the design concept for the Thinkpad X300 specifically came from the USA, but the detailed design, engineering and protypes were done in Yamato, Japan.

The article also says that the X300 is now being made, apparently by "women in blue Lenovo smocks," in a "ThinkPad factory" that occupies "a six-story concrete building in a free-trade zone" in Shenzhen.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_08/b4072042350389_page_4.htm

However, at least one other article has said that Lenovo is totally outsourcing production, including final assembly.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210580&highlight=compal+wistron+quanta

 

That point talks about how Lenovo does a trial run of the assembly process. Many OEMs do it as they need to find the most efficient method of putting these notebooks together and fix any design flaws that may not become apparent until you start manufacturing them in vast quantitites.
Once they work this out, they may outsource it to their partners to assemble these units, according to the precise specifications and instructions prepared by Lenovo.