Electronics: High Tech, Innovation, Cool Marketing on one side, mediocre quality, delayed availability for new product, inventory write-offs on the other side. This is the now famous imbalance of our industry.

The wrong solution: forecasting, reworking, recalls.

The potential breakthrough: expand the world best supply chain methods -The Toyota Production System- also know as lean manufacturing to electronics.

Today there is about 90% of wasted time and energy in the electronics supply chain, i.e. time and energy that the end customer will not pay for. This waste appears as bloated inventory, component shortages, low yield on new products, and perhaps the worst: major recalls (as illustrated by the recent PC battery fiasco).

If all the players in the supply chain from OEM to ODM to EMS to component manufacturers, from engineers to manufacturers to marketers work together to eliminate waste our industry could have both exciting innovation and world class quality and customer satisfaction.

This is what this weblog will be about...suggesting practical lean solutions to traditional breakdowns in the electronics supply chain. I will address first the fundamental management principle behind lean: set a very exciting vision, link your lean deployment with clear financial goals, drive all improvements from the customer back into the supply chain, empower your people, leverage the knowledge of Toyota trained advisors, collaborate with rather than squeeze your suppliers to reduce costs, and above all never tolerate that bad quality be passed on down the line. Then we will review in depth how to implement some of the key tools of lean: value mapping, fast changeover, fool proofing, demand management. We will spend a whole weblog on total quality; address the famous question of the rapport between lean and six sigma. We will also see how to combine Design For Six Sigma and Production Preparation Process to assure world class quality in new designs. In depth collaboration with suppliers to eliminate costs and achieve market based costing will be discussed.

I will propose ways to establish collaboration with distribution to make sure that demand variations transmitted to the supply chain reflects genuine end-consumer consumption patterns rather than self imposed large batch variability. We will conclude with a description of the benefits for all parties involved in the lean transformation: customers, suppliers, shareholders and all personnel involved in the supply chain.

See you all in my next blog entry…