 High Tech
Improving Inventory Deployment Strategies in the High Tech IndustrySmartOps inventory optimization solutions allow manufacturers of electronics, telecommunications, and computer equipment to dynamically determine the appropriate inventory targets for each component and finished product, by location, over time to meet service levels. As the technology industry continues to accelerate in product advancements and releases, the pressure keeps intensifying for suppliers and manufacturers to maintain and grow market share and product margins, reduce production lead times, and drive down costs. The economic conditions of the past several years have made that pressure even worse and have demonstrated that proactive supply chain planning and optimization could have done much to mitigate the negative effects caused by uncertainty. With SmartOps, companies in the technology industry can now calculate and understand how much inventory they should carry, why, where, and when. As a result, manufacturers can address common challenges that have previously inhibited improvements in supply chain performance: Technology Companies Must Cope with Inherent Uncertainties in Supply and Demand Uncertainties, disruptions, and variances in the supply chain make it extremely hard for planners to decide with confidence how much inventory of each item should be kept at any point in the network at any time to meet demand. To hedge against supply constraints, lead time variability, and forecast errors, planners and managers currently rely on rules of thumb and basic spreadsheet decision support. SmartOps offers a better way: analyzing comprehensive data at a granular level to adequately manage safety stock and other reasons for carrying inventory. SmartOps optimization algorithms manage the inherent uncertainties in data and offer visibility into the drivers of inventory at the component/item-location-time period level of detail. Technology Manufacturers Have Multistage Supply Networks Multistage complexity cannot be addressed effectively through single-location planning or sequential planning. SmartOps recognizes that supply chain nodes and echelons are interdependent, and plans for each stocking location must be calculated simultaneously in order to accommodate all the variables that impact inventory targets. MIPO coordinates total chain inventory deployment plans -- from raw materials, through in-process and postponement stages, through distribution and retail channels. Customer Expectations Continue to Increase The competitive dynamics of preexisting and emerging distribution channels -- not to mention the expectations created by some of this industry's top performers -- place increasing customer service demands on technology product manufacturers and suppliers. SmartOps MIPO has given our Fortune 500 customers the solution for determining the best possible placement and inventory targets for products across the supply chain, at the lowest total chain cost, based on desired customer service levels. Being able to provide visibility into and scenario planning for the cost trade-offs associated with different service levels has been a major selling advantage for SmartOps. Product Life Cycles Impact Strategic and Tactical Supply Chain Planning As new technology develops, product life cycles continue to contract. Suppliers and manufacturers must maximize customer service and product margins, while minimizing cost exposure during the various stages of the product life cycle. To support that, SmartOps software coordinates the critical areas that comprise optimal inventory deployment plans: capacity, demand, availability, lead time, and inventory. This allows planners and managers to support ongoing optimization, as well as robust scenario analysis for strategic network planning. SmartOps Multistage Inventory Planning & Optimization (MIPOTM) is an advanced software solution for optimizing total chain inventory targets to meet desired customer service/product availability targets, while accounting for capacity constraints, multistage interdependencies, and supply and demand variability. The SmartOps MIPO solution gives manufacturers a way to fill a critical missing piece in their enterprise planning systems and processes -- the ability to frequently, dynamically generate optimal inventory planning parameters:
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