A complex global supply chain has created additional operational concerns, including the need to conform with international regulatory and compliance issues. Accurate and real-time component, pricing and inventory data can be the difference between a successful business and a failing one. Shortened product life cycles and fluctuating customer demand have also increased overall uncertainty, making long-term planning complex.
Managing these challenges while remaining competitive has been an ongoing challenge for electronic manufacturingcompanies over the past decade. The front-end, customer-facing aspects of the business tend to take precedence during a time of upheaval, with leaders overlooking internal processes.
Failing to address these key operational business processes is a mistake – one that can negatively affect the efficiency, productivity, and profitability of an electronics manufacturer.
Here are 3 common mistakes electronics manufacturing companies are making:
1. Incompatible Data Formats
A reliance on incompatible data formats is a widespread problem in electronics manufacturing. Companies make the mistake of acquiring data in any format, often through inefficient or unsecure transmissions such as mail, email or fax.
Employees need to manually assess and re-enter information to make sense of incorrectly formatted data. This process is inefficient and error-prone.
Adopting an automation system that can receive complex data in the supply chain in different formats and translate it into a single, usable format can alleviate this problem. Data intake becomes an automatic process, and the data that is received is clear, usable, and free from the errors associated with manual data conversions.
2. Double Ordering
A recent report from Morgan Stanley showed that double orders have reached an all-time high, with 46% of distribution company respondents reporting duplicate orders – almost twice as many over the prior year.
Electronic component manufacturers are particularly likely to encounter double ordering, as rising demand has made components scarce, and a lack of centralized order data has made it difficult to identify duplicates.
3. Lack of Data Analytics
A company that does not have a centralized data repository, with real-time data updates, is losing out on a significant opportunity to use data analytics to improve business operations.
Data analytics can improve the electronic component supply chain and be applied to optimize manufacturing and front-end, customer-facing activities. Analytics can also be used to enhance back-office operations including sales, procurement, RFP and PO processes, logistics, warehousing, and more.
A failure to implement centralized data gathering and analytics represent a failure to take advantage of information that could translate to a significant competitive advantage for electronics components manufacturing companies.
The electronics component market size is expected to reach $363 billion worldwide in 2018. As the market continues to grow in size and complexity, manufacturers will need to increase efficiency and productivity, and control costs, to remain competitive. While back-office operations are difficult to prioritize in a hectic, changing business environment, it is essential to ensure that all processes are efficient and cost-effective.
More electronics manufacturing companies are implementing business process automation solutions, like the Orbweaver Platform, to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and integrate data into a single, useful system to improve information and communication throughout the organization and remain competitive in a rapidly changing industry.
Orbweaver simplifies internal processes for electronics manufacturing by integrating our partners directly with their suppliers and customers to eliminate common data management challenges such as RFQ intake, price book management, and PO issuance and save time and money.
