SUPPLY CHAIN CONSIDERATIONS TO REDUCE INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER LEAD TIMES

Amidst product development, software development, sales, and marketing, supply chain can easily be overlooked. But in many ways, it’s the most important factor in bringing your product to market. It can make or break a project because it all comes down to one simple question: Can you deliver affordably and on time? 

Reduction of Lead Times 

When looking to ensure on-time delivery, the first consideration is that of lead times. In the industrial computer market, it’s not uncommon to see lead times for volume quantities extend as high as 8-10 weeks. Due to the custom nature of industrial computer product, with each product configured to a specific end customer, every production run is built-to-order and that translates to manufacturing lead times. 

The solutions to these long lead times lie in effective management of the supply chain. The most effective way to reduce these lead times requires forecasting and partnership with a trusted vendor. It rolls out like this: 

• Establish a forecast based on customer order, project requirements, sales projections, etc. 
• Share these forecasts with your vendor. 
• Together, with your vendor, work out a flexible delivery schedule. Lean on your vendor to utilize their available resources for warehousing, kitting, delivery, etc. 

Based on the above, and assuming you’ve partnered with a vendor capable of the above, you should be able to get discounted pricing based on the full volume of your order, while receiving deliveries based your agreed upon schedule, with billing occurring only when product is shipped. 

This not only effectively eliminates lead times. But you are also securing a lower overall cost because your order will be priced based of yearly quantities, rather than individual shipments. And if you are surprised by a huge influx of orders, over and above what was forecast, you can always pull in the scheduled forecast and take delivery of product sooner. 

Assembly, Kitting, and Drop Shipping 

While the above point on lead time reduction covers the arrangement with your vendor up to the point where the product leaves their dock, it does not account for all the work you now have to do to ensure that you receive your product, put it through all of your in-house production phases, and deliver it to your end customer. All of which costs you time and resources. There are a few tools you can take advantage of to offload this burden. 

Hardware Kitting 

If your application requires you to only purchase components from your vendor to be further assembled into a chassis, larger device, or other type of enclosure, then a surefire way to simplify your assembly process is using hardware kitting. All the hardware that is needed in a single product assembly can be packaged together in a single box, shipped to you that way. So when you receive it, you need only open the box and use the product. This saves time unpacking, sorting, and doing the kitting onsite. Instead, this approach packages a large number of separate components into something comparable to a Lego kit in its simplicity. 

Assembly and Imaging 

If your application will allow for it, offloading the full assembly and software imaging to your vendor is a massive save on time and resources. It completely removes the need to unpack, assemble, test, load software, repack, etc. Instead, you receive a turnkey system that is tested and works right out of the box with your custom software on it that is ready to be embedded in your final device or delivered to your end customer. 

This removes a large burden of assembly and logistics from your company, so you can focus more tech resources on product development and the servicing of your customers. 

Drop Shipping 

The next logical step from here, if there are no further production steps you need to take on these products, is to make use of drop shipping. Your vendor can take on the full burden of logistics, shipping directly to your end customers so that they can use the product straight out of the box, pre-loaded with your custom software. This saves you the time and money involved with bringing the product inhouse unnecessarily. You can even use this as an additional branding opportunity by utilizing custom packaging with your logo. 

Final Thoughts on Supply Chain 

Supply chain can certainly be a painful process, but it doesn’t need to be. By leaning on suppliers who are willing to partner with you and help to unburden you of your supply chain, you can vastly reduce lead times and costs associated with shipping and inventory. 

Learn more about how New Era Electronics reduces the headache of logistics through our approach to supply chain management.