VTech Shares Secrets for Supply Chain Excellence

October 21, 2009 - Founded in 1976, VTech Communications Inc.'s mission is to be the most cost effective designer and manufacturer of innovative, high quality consumer electronics products and to distribute them to markets worldwide in the most efficient manner.

 

Today, VTech is able to stay true to this mission because -- almost a decade ago -- it pioneered the effective use of a data warehouse that includes demand signals. Today, this enterprise data warehouse, which contains weekly, store-level, point-of-sale data by SKU from 90 percent of its customers, empowers nearly every department -- from supply chain to sales to research and development and more.

 

Here, VTech's Director of Supply Chain Kedar Kulkarni, who is charged to lead continuous improvement in demand sensing and shaping, shares tips that you can apply to your own data warehouse and supply chain initiatives:

 

Tip No. 1: Take an outside-in view of the entire value chain and get visibility as far down the channel as possible to drive demand sensing

 

Tip No. 2: Create a continuous buzz and culture around point-of-sale/downstream data with visual reporting

 

Tip No. 3: Conduct S&OP meetings with customers directly instead of guessing what they might order

 

Tip No. 4: Model your upstream supply chain to make it the most responsive within the constraints imposed by the network

 

Tip No. 5: Drive a single source of truth across functions to enable a meaningful S&OP

 

Tip No. 6: Model risk in your supply chain design to ensure multiple demand scenarios can be met effectively at lowest cost/risk

 

Want to learn more about how VTech has achieved supply chain excellence with an effective data warehouse strategy? Click here to read this article in its entirety.