infoTECH Feature

February 02, 2009

High-Tech Supply Chains Affected by Increased Complexity, Less Visibility

A survey released by Microsoft/Infosys states that high-tech manufacturer supply chains are being harmed by an increasing number of products, suppliers, channels and geographies. The survey also states that other factors such as the lack of real-time visibility have contributed to hurting revnues for these high-tech manufacturers.
 
The lack of visibility across the enterprise and its trading partners often stop supply chain professionals from making informed decisions. Also, the data is sometimes gathered manually or it is scattered all over the company’s databases in the different regions, further denying the tools necessary to make informed decisions for these professionals.
 
The Infosys/Microsoft (News - Alert) “High-Tech Manufacturing Supply Chain Survey 2009,” was conducted by Washington, D.C.-based KRC Research among high-tech manufacturing firms in Germany, Japan and the United States. The survey stated that the chief decision makers of the company reported increasing complexity in their supply chains.
 
“The economy may be down, but the number of products, suppliers and geographies that high-tech manufacturers have to manage has gone way up," said Tyler Bryson, general manager of U.S. Manufacturing and Resources Sector at Microsoft. "This complexity has made it difficult for firms to discover disruptions and act quickly, and this is becoming an increasingly serious industry issue.”
 
The survey states that the third parties or contract manufacturers provide more than 50 percent of their manufacturing output for 29 percent of high-tech manufacturers. The surveyed companies also reported increased growth in the areas such as number of demand geographies managed (63 percent); number of demand channels managed (59 percent); number of products or stock-keeping units (SKUs) managed (66 percent); number of production locations managed (59 percent); and the number of suppliers managed (62 percent).
 
While the survey is weighted toward U.S. respondents, there were some noteworthy differences in results from the U.S., Germany and Japan. Germany reported the highest percentage (80 percent) among countries experiencing a supply chain disruption, followed by the U.S. (69 percent) and Japan (30 percent).
 
Recently, Network Equipment Technologies (News - Alert) (NET) upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 for High Tech with Fullscope. Fullscope is a Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner and it offers domain expertise to companies with process, discrete and hybrid manufacturing operations. It also develops and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX.
 
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is Fixed Service Strategies for Mobile Network Operators, brought to you by Comverse (News - Alert).

Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart
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