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By Ed Price, President
Milford Manufacturing
Services
 The introduction
of efficiencies in electronics manufacturing services
(EMS) has significant cost-saving implications.
Faster and coordinated line operations, rapid logistical
response from suppliers and distributors, and more accurate
data are just a few examples of ways electronic manufacturers
have improved operations. A fraction of a percentage
point compounded over tens of thousands of units adds
up to real numbers over the life of a production run,
and when efficiencies translate into a faster time-to-market,
the strategic advantages further multiply the revenue
equation.
Over the years, leaders and
innovators in EMS have sought such advantages through
investments in new equipment and technologies, innovative
approaches to production management, and offshore
relocation.
However, old habits and the
global nature of a modern EMS environment present unique
challenges to the industry from a communications
standpoint. With the emphasis on globalization and
outsourcing, today's electronics manufacturing chain is highly
decentralized. An OEM may be in one location, designer
in another, prototyping handled somewhere else, and volume
production facility in yet another. Often, two or more
of these functions are not even on the same continent.
Throw suppliers into the mix - and a few closely guarded trade
secrets - and its easy to see how communications can get
bogged down.
Out with the Old, In
with the New
The biggest barrier to major productivity
gains in EMS is found in the industry tendency toward
non-communication - a vestige of a time when competitiveness
was dependent upon proprietary knowledge. Minimal
communications minimized the opportunity for vital information
to end up in the wrong hands.
This old school mentality
is antithetical to efficient operations. Just as highly
networked production lines depend upon real-time
communications between automated machines, more rapid data
exchange between partners fuels faster opportunity response
and can mitigate risks such as inventory liability.
Yet while production
managers readily embrace the latest in highly networked
technologies to enable better device-to-device communications,
they remain fearful of opening up communications channels in
the supply chain. There has never been an environmental
thought process applied to information technology in EMS, but
this has to change in order to open the window of
opportunity.
The tools are available. All that is
needed is a willingness to change.
In the logistics
industry today, communications are transparent. Every party to
a package has up-to-the-minute access to a parcel's
whereabouts from drop-off to final delivery. Online tracking
provides a clear view to sender, recipient, and vendor,
instilling confidence that the service is working to the
customer's satisfaction.
This level of visibility
greatly enhances the ability to answer questions and resolve
problems. Simple inquiries are answered instantaneously, while
more vexing problems can be handled in minutes rather than
hours or days.
Similar transparency is needed in EMS.
Under such a system, significant cost would be driven out of
the EMS process through the introduction of greater
efficiencies, and value introduced through more rapid
opportunity response, faster time-to-market, and improved
partner loyalty and satisfaction.
A Window to the
World
In EMS, sophisticated communications tools are
typically deployed only on an enterprise-wide basis.
Customers, partners, and suppliers are shut out of the
process, resulting in attention paid to why things can't be
done, rather than how changes can be done quickly and right.
By eliminating costly delays in the decision-making process,
what used to take days can now be accomplished in moments.
Opportunity is no longer a victim of the process.
By
taking advantage of innovations like web-enabled technologies
to infuse their supply and partner chains with instantaneous
access to the data that pertains to each party, contract
manufacturers can make internal and external communications
function as one. And by merging all parties onto one virtual
network with anywhere, anytime access to information,
collaboration is the natural result. With a literal and
figurative real-time view into their outsourced processes,
OEMs and their customers can instantly respond to each other's
rapidly changing needs as if operations were located on-site.
This allows modifications to be made quickly, easily, and cost
effectively - even in low-volume, high-mix
projects.
Similarly, seamless knowledge transfer to,
and centralized management of offshore production facilities
eliminates the "re-learning" curve associated with high-volume
production startup, removing redundancy from the equation,
while focusing on quality control and customer needs.
Furthermore, supply needs are immediately and proactively
calculated, and logistics arranged quickly and efficiently,
drastically reducing inventory liability.
These changes
are considerable, resulting in significant G&A, staffing,
and materials savings, which can be passed on to customers or
used to increase margins.
If a new Industrial
Revolution is to take place, it will happen through
information technology, where significant investments are
applied to the innovations making such virtual channels
possible. The results are already bringing about radical
change in the proprietary thinking in the EMS industry.
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Milford Manufacturing
Services enables OEMs to bring outsourced electronic
manufacturing services back under their roof - virtually -
through The Looking Glass (TM).