Sep 20, 2016

IoT: Meeting Manufacturing’s Next-Generation Challenges And Opportunities By by Rajaram Radhakrishnan & Prasad Satyavolu, Manufacturing Business Technology Manufacturers face an exciting yet challenging future. Meeting consumer demands for personalization, increasing productivity despite the skills shortage and generating new revenue opportunities are all major strategic issues. Deep, real-time visibility into plant operations and supply chains, the ability to predict plant floor events and anticipate broader trends using existing resources to their fullest capacity are all required capabilities. The Internet of Things (IoT), with its potential to assimilate real-time information through sensory enablement and a growing network of interconnected devices, can equip manufacturers with these capabilities, giving them higher flexibility to respond to changing market dynamics. Each manufacturer’s IoT strategy will be unique to their specific operating system, their place in the value chain and the customers they serve. Yet all manufacturers should use the following as benchmarks to ensure that their IoT implementations provide the data and business intelligence required to succeed in today’s business environment. Broad Scope of Instrumentation Automation has existed for decades in most manufacturing production facilities and warehouses — from barcode readers to robots — and some manufacturers easily track the flow of parts and goods on their shop floors. IoT allows the manufacturers to take their automation to the next level, leveraging information available inside, around and beyond the walls of the plant floors. IoT-driven automation delves deeper and broader, enabling manufacturers to gain granular visibility into their operations. For example, human sensing can play a role in integrating work allocation as well as safety in case of an accident. While human sensing in consumer environments raises privacy concerns, it has tremendous potential in the industrial world. Accomplishing complete tracking of operations requires manufacturers to deploy more sensors throughout their facilities, including material handling equipment, capturing multitudes of equipment performance parameters in real-time and data about ambient conditions such as temperature, humidity and air quality. This information set, correlated with the workstation data gathered through the Manufacturing Execution System, provides core level visibility and impact of conditions on overall plant performance. Other systems and devices that affect plant performance also need to be instrumented, from maintenance equipment to drones, robots and...

Sep 12, 2016

“5 Ways to Create Procurement & Sourcing Value Through Integrated Supply Chains” By Abe Eshkenazi, CEO, APICS EBN Online As many in supply chain management know, sourcing and procurement professionals are tightly linked to value in the supply chain; the price of locating and managing materials obviously effects profits. However, many fail to realize is value in the supply chain is derived from more than just calculating sales minus costs. In fact, “softer” skills like collaboration and relationship building may be just as important as unit price in creating customer value and reducing supply chain risk. There are a number of strategic ways that managers can add lasting value in sourcing and procurement. In the end, the most talented supply pros know that putting the biggest squeeze on suppliers doesn’t create the best value. As part of a partnership between APICS Supply Chain Council and Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, the Supply Chain Management: Beyond the Horizon project explored the components of supply chain success, as well as examined elements of an organization’s business model, management, and interrelationships between the business model and supply chain operations. In the latest research report from the project, Creating Value Through Procurement and Sourcing Efforts in Integrated Supply Chains, five actions that executives believe are necessary to create value and enhance procurement practices are identified. Understand value In order to increase value, it’s important to readjust traditional ideas of what the word actually means in the supply chain. In procurement and sourcing, value has long been measured by unit costs, with successful professionals mastering the art of negotiation techniques to lower prices. However, cheaper items often are lower quality than their more expensive counterparts, which can lead to greater costs – and more risk – down the line. Additionally, time spent on replacing or supplementing low-cost units often translates to loss of productivity. So how do successful managers instead define value creation? The report shows that the nature of value for supply chain professionals has shifted toward a more rounded approach that measures tradeoffs and best value arrangements. Value in this sense includes forming collaborative relationships with suppliers, rather than those that are purely transactional,...

Aug 12, 2015

By Hailey Lynne McKeefry, EBN In the days where supply chain analytics were left to handwritten tallies or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, the supply chain was hindered by lack of information. Today, however, technology tools, especially cloud-based tools, are bringing some major boons to the supply chain. “On the electronics industry side, with the advent of technology and platform, there are powerful things we can do for the supply chain ecosystem,” Jigish Avalani, president and COO of Tradeshift, which makes a cloud-based supply chain platform, told EBN in an interview. The growth of this market has been exceedingly strong. With 10.8% annual growth, supply chain management (SCM) and procurement applications outpaced most software markets to total $9.9 billion in 2014, according to market research firm Gartner. Cloud-based solutions had the strongest growth of all reaching 17% annually, the analyst said. Avalani outlined three clear benefits that these platforms are delivering to electronics OEMs: Better collaboration. “Better collaboration really is a foundation for the ability to communicate and to transact and understand the inventory with the entire supply chain on a dynamic basis,” said Avalani. Technology allows OEMs to see product availability, inventory levels and more at the supplier—and to smooth out potential problems before they occur. Easier supplier management. Supply chain technology platforms allow OEMs to on-board new suppliers more quickly and with fewer mistakes. Further, these systems make it possible to monitor the health of the relationship, understand potential risks, track compliance information, and spot performance degredation and other delays. “Start with the idea that no one has inll intent, and all suppliers are trust worthy, rather than applying strange and arcane rules in triplicate,” said Avalani. “Technology will let you start with an environment that is productive, and then controls risk and compliance through the compliance itself.” The ability to deliver on the full capability of the ecosystem. “No single entity or department is able to focus on every single nuance of the business, nor should they,” said Avalani. By choosing the right platform and applications, organizations can bring together an end-to-end platform that can generate value across the organization. Better compliance. “The trends of increased digitization and globalization are putting pressure on every company in the world...

Despite Slow but Steady Growth from the Bottom, Manufacturing Overall, Many Sectors Below 2007 Levels By: SCDigest Editorial Staff, Supply Chain Digest The so called “Great Recession” that started in early 2008 and reached bottom in most metrics a year and a half later, in June of 2009, hit the economy and US manufacturing very hard. Since then, manufacturing has generally been cited as a consistent bright spot in a still somewhat wobbly US economy, with generally consistent positive numbers in the monthly Purchasing Managers Index from ISM and at least decent growth in manufacturing jobs. Also, there is at least anecdotal evidence that some US manufacturers are deciding to bring production back home from China or deciding not to move existing production offshore to begin with, due to rising wages in China, “regional” manufacturing strategies, and more. But what do the numbers really look like? This week, we take a look at overall manufacturing numbers as compiled by the Federal Reserve, as well the specific trajectories of about a half dozen individual manufacturing sectors, using our exclusive “supply chain web chart” technology. Next week, we’ll be back with analysis of another selection of industries. The data overall and for each sector is in index form, with the base year for each being 2007. So, all numbers reflect the percent up or down over time (January, 1990 through February 2013) from that base year. So, a score of 98 in a given month, for example, would mean production in that period was 2% below the 2007 average. Overall, as seen in the chart below, far from slumping since the early 2000s, as many believe, US output peeked in December of 2007. But output started dropping sharply almost immediately after that, as the recession began, reaching a bottom in June of 2009 at almost 19% below the 2007 average. Great Recession indeed. There has been a long, slow climb back up since then, with production in early 2013 still just over 4% below 2007 levels more than five years later. Now let’s look at some specific sectors. The general consumer goods sector has recovered a little bit more slowly, with production still just over 6% below 2007 output. The...

By: Mark Stortt, Deisgn-2-Part Magazine Long term financial strength is a business plan priority for a spring manufacturing company that practices Open Book Management If you’re looking for a supplier of high quality, low cost parts and would like to talk with Springfield Spring Corporation President Norman Rodriques about the possibility of bringing his company into your supply chain, be prepared for an offer to check out his company’s financial Z-Score. The spirited head of the East Longmeadow, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of springs, wire forms, and stampings takes justifiable pride in his company’s financial solvency–not to mention its year-after-year growth in sales, profit, and capital investments–after having steered the firm through some turbulent economic storms over the last dozen years. Rodriques, a passionate practitioner and advocate of Open Book Management, willingly documents Springfield Spring’s financial stability for prospective OEM clients, many of whom request that their suppliers offer financial transparency before entering into a manufacturing relationship. He knows that many corporations have been burned by supply chain disruptions resulting from the financial insolvency of companies that had formerly supplied critical components. “During the recession, supply chain disruptions were happening all over the place,” he says. “We were trying to tell customers, we’re a supplier you don’t have to worry about. So if you’ve got five spring suppliers, and one’s not shipping on time that used to be, could it be potentially that they can’t get raw material? How many people have been laid off? What’s their turnover? What’s their debt service ratio? Are they over-leveraged? And all of a sudden, it really doesn’t become a discussion in ISO.” Springfield Spring Corporation (www.springfieldspring.com), a privately held company with headquarters in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts and a division in Bristol, Connecticut, manufactures precision-engineered compression springs, extension springs, and torsion springs, as well as wire forms, stampings, light assemblies, and air filter holding frame clips. The company services a variety of industries, such as firearms, medical devices, lighting, filter frame hardware, electrical distribution controls, window screen hardware, and military. Many prominent OEMs–including Cook Medical, Toyota, Covidien, Bose, Cooper Lighting, Otis, and Smith & Wesson–are among the firm’s customers. As a practitioner of Open Book Management, Springfield Spring teaches its...