Second Source Management
In an effort to design and launch products quickly by concentrating on the look, feel and functionality; many fail to consider supply chain management issues after the first production run. This goes beyond having the stock on the shelf when needed – there is a good degree of component sourcing complexity involved.
Having the right component management processes can be the difference between the success and failure. This means component sourcing has to take care of supplier management, divisional components, product components and project related component requirements. Companies must decide whether products need single sourced components from offshore manufacturers on long lead-times or components that are available through a local supplier with a shorter lead-time, and maybe also factor in a second source. The offshore component supplier may provide a lower cost, but if it means the product launch is delayed and the market opportunity missed then that component becomes expensive.
Zuken’s Component Master offers a flexible method of ranking components based on a supplier “matrix” to ensure valid methods that allows you to bridge the gap between engineering technology decisions versus sourcing decisions.
If you are interested in how Zuken is able to support you in this area, don’t hesitate to contact us.
