As a new decade begins amid trade and political uncertainty, London, U.K.-based SpendEdge has identified what it views as the biggest challenges the American electronics supply chain is currently facing.
Demand variability and supply variability coupled with re-ordering ease and lower lead times are a few of the factors that influence consumer demand trends that the U.S. electronics industry needs to respond to.
Numerous features offered by electronics products lead to unpredictable life cycles. They create uncertainties in product life cycles and increase pressure on companies to improve the efficiency of their supply chain. Demand variability and supply variability also influence consumer demand trends. Companies need to be aware of the key supply chain challenges in the U.S. electronics industry in order to address them.
Short product life cycles
Short product life cycles are one of the major challenges faced by companies in the U.S. electronics industry. Companies have to carry extra inventory to address customer demand. This increases inventory carrying costs and risks to the company’s bottom line, in case the product fails to perform in the desired way.
Globalization
The involvement of numerous stakeholders in the product’s journey makes supply chain visibility a necessity for companies. They are required to collect and organize various sets of data to ensure that they are not reworking plans and missing discrepancies. Capturing all master and transactional data with one system can help companies to address such supply chain issues.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions are key to expansion in the U.S. electronics industry. The inability to integrate data from newly acquired companies can make it difficult for companies. They must leverage the benefits of planning solutions to pull data and model the behavior of multiple ERP systems. This will help them easily manipulate and analyze data.
Source: SpendEdge