The electronics industry is experiencing rapid change.  This is mainly due to the merging of consumers, computers and communications, which is known as 3C convergence.  The 3C convergence trend is linking the IT and digital home appliance industries and is responsible for the emergence of mobile phone TVs, VoIP and other new services as hotspots for electronics investment.  3C convergence is also making computers so widely available that consumers expect additional functionality and great pricing when purchasing almost any computer product today.

The electronics industry can be classified as follows:

• Computers and office machinery

Manufacturers of computers, peripherals and office machinery face numerous challenges such as extremely short product life cycles, concerns about overhead cost requirements and intense price competition. With globalization, the converging of traditionally distinct markets and technologies also presents a challenge.  Computer equipment companies have to balance their assets carefully to shorten their product time-to-market while keeping overhead and operational costs down. The cost of developing and manufacturing new technology and the shortened life cycle of today's products have made keeping costs down a necessity.  This category includes:  computers, computer storage devices, computer terminals, peripheral equipment     (printers, plotters, graphic display instruments), calculating and accounting equipment and office machines.

• Electronics equipment and semiconductors

This sector includes the manufacture of specialized electronic instruments such as circuit boards, semiconductors and household audio and video equipment. The need to continually upgrade processes is necessary to keep up with the velocity of technology evolution and to surpass the competition. In response to market demand, manufacturers in this sector must constantly advance the computing power and size of electronic devices.  Semiconductor manufacturers also face intense rivalry in an exceptionally volatile market.  A product that was once defined as state-of-the-art rapidly becomes obsolete and the pressure to develop products with upgraded technology extends to the chip equipment makers, foundries, design labs and distributors.  Additional challenges facing semiconductor manufacturers are long lead times, global coordination and complex manufacturing processes.  This category includes: electron tubes, printed circuit boards, electronic capacitors, electronic resistors, electronic coils and transformers, electronic connectors, electronic components, magnetic and optical recording media and electrical equipment and supplies.

• Controls, meters and photographic equipment

This sector of the electronics industry manufactures and supplies instruments for metering, controlling, analyzing and measuring, as well as photographic equipment and supplies.  The industrial and instruments industry is highly competitive, technologically advanced and globally integrated. Products are sophisticated, highly customized and often complex.  Some challenges facing this marketplace are: low sales prices, performance capabilities, state-of-the-art technology, technical support and aftermarket service.  This category includes:  environmental controls, process control instruments, fluid meters and counting devices, instruments to measure electricity, measuring and controlling devices, photographic equipment and supplies  (includes microfilm, blueprint and projection devices, film, plates, chemicals and supplies).

The expected growth of the electronics industry is fueled by the explosion in internet capabilities. The market continually demands faster and cheaper products with more functionality. This puts pressure on companies to shorten their time to market, reduce their costs and improve their engineering design and execution.  The success of the electronics industry is highly dependent on successfully managing customer satisfaction, time to market, innovation and cost reduction. Because automation has changed the way products are conceived, manufactured and brought to market, the electronics industry must adapt to the dynamics of the networked world to be successful.  A company's agility and speed in getting to market are critical success factors in the electronics industry, regardless of its segment.

Key Industry Challenges:

• Constant new product introductions
• Short product lifecycles
• High levels of obsolete inventory
• Complex supply chains
• Multiple subcontractors and outsourcing for components
• Need for supply and demand visibility
• High IT costs
• High overhead costs
• Need for better product quality
• Need for communication, collaboration and integration with the value chain
• Rising number of legal and regulatory requirements - alignment and accountability, external and internal disclosures, risk mitigation
• Highly competitive market
• Need for high levels of aftermarket service
• Need for high levels of technical support
• Price pressures

How SYSPRO Can Help

Product Configurator
The Product Configurator module provides a rules-based configurator that enables companies to efficiently process products that are manufactured-to-order, assembled-to-order or sold in many configurations. It can also help reduce configuration errors, while reducing the involvement of experts in routine transactions.  The Product Configurator allows a non-technical person to create a viable customized product for a sales order, estimate or quote. A configuration must first be defined, specifying which components and operations can be used to create a product. Once a configuration has been defined, the Product Configuration Wizard can be used to create an item from that configuration. The configuration can be set up to create a stocked parent part, non-stocked parent or both. Once the parent has been defined, a job, Bill of Materials structure and routing or a combination of both can be created to manufacture the parent. If a stocked or non-stocked parent has been created using the Configurator, it can be used in the same way as other stocked items. A configuration consists of selection criteria, options, components and operations.

Lot Traceability
The SYSPRO Lot Traceability module is designed to provide full traceability at the transactional level for items which could cause loss of life or limb if conformance to quality standards is not adhered to.  Companies in industries such as electronics, aeronautics, defense, food, pharmaceutical, motor vehicles and building would typically require the Lot Traceability module. This module records material movement through the receiving, manufacturing, assembly, inspection, stocking and final dispatch stages. The integration with other SYSPRO modules permits full upward and downward traceability through all inventory transactions. The module traces product life cycle from raw materials to final products.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling
The SYSPRO APS system provides a graphical view of the shop floor in real-time and measures productivity at the closest point to manufacture. It provides a simple and efficient means of coordinating the supply chain through better advanced planning, scheduling and visibility over production. A concise, tactical overview of production schedules and workloads by work center, day, and job enables managers to more easily identify potential problem areas and schedule jobs in accordance with available resources and promised delivery dates.

Serial Tracking
The SYSPRO Serial Tracking System is part of the inventory module and is designed to provide full tracking at the transactional level for items that have serial numbers assigned to them and carry a warranty. Serial Tracking can be implemented at any time and serial numbers and their accompanying historical transactions may be captured for full visibility in support of warrantee claims. Unique serial numbers may be assigned to each serialized item (manual) or to a mass produced item (batch). Companies in industries such as electronics, food, pharmaceutical, electrical goods and computer hardware would typically use the Serial Tracking system. The integration with other SYSPRO modules permits full visibility of all inventory transactions.

Kit Sales
The Single Level Bill of Materials in the SYSPRO Sales Order module provides the facility to sell items in a Kit form with specified mandatory and optional components. The Bill of Materials module is required to define the relationship between the finished (parent) part and the components to determine the cost and selling prices and whether the stocking levels of the parent or the component are affected. Companies in the wholesale or manufacturing sectors who sell items in kit form would typically use the Single Level Bill of Materials facility. The integration between the SYSPRO Inventory, Sales Order and Bill of Materials modules provides full visibility of all inventory transactions.

Work in Progress Inspection
Manufacturing Inspection enables the inspection, rework, scrap or receiving in of product as an alternate lower grade product or into a "seconds" warehouse.

Estimating
Estimates are used to define the components, operations and structural relationships between the parent and component parts needed to make a non-stocked item (i.e. a non-stock Bill of Material). An Estimate Status can be defined to indicate that the estimate is available for use in a quotation or unavailable (under development). Operations and Components can be copied from another estimate or stocked item. A Cost/Lead Time Rollup can be performed to calculate the price of the item and the manufacturing lead time.

Quotations
The Quotations module enables the entry and maintenance of quotations, the printing of free-format quotations and, upon confirmation of the quote by the client, the confirmation of the details into Work in Progress, Sales Orders and Requisitions/Purchase Orders. The Quotations module generates quotes, which emulate Sales Orders, with up to five quotation quantities/offers per line. While quotation may be as simple as a listing of stock parts, the power of the module becomes evident when one or more stock items must be specially made. In these cases, a supporting estimate can be created. This, in turn, may have one or more special parts, which again can be supported by an estimate, and so on, similar to a Bill of Materials. This process can be extended to fourteen levels, which are then rolled-up to complete the quotation's top level costing. Prices are calculated through price mark-ups based on a % of individual Labor/Material costs and/or using a specified Rate indicator for Labor and/or using an entered price for material. In addition, three global markup percentages can be entered on Labor, Material and the total.  When the quotation is accepted, it can be used to record a Sales Order and, where necessary, a chain of master and sub-jobs to support it. Purchase Requisitions and Purchase Orders can be created for special bought-out items or when shortages exist for bought-out/sub-contract items anywhere in the Sales Order/Job chain.

Besides using the Quotations module for quoting, SYSPRO has a simplified quoting system called Quick Entry that can be used within Sales Order Entry. You use the Quick Entry function to enter quotes in a rapid and effective manner without having to enter all the details associated with the entry of a normal order. It is ideally suited to a telesales environment, where speed of entry is important and the facility to enter a quote rather than an order is vital. The quote can be stored for retrieval at a later stage and then converted into an order for a specific customer.

Requirements Planning
The Requirements Planning module is the focus of the manufacturing and material resource planning system. The objective of requirements planning is to create realistic purchasing and production schedules, optimize stock holdings and identify capacity constraints in a multi-site, multi-warehouse environment. The module assists with the planning of materials and production capacity required to meet demand and identifies levels of usage of critical resources for rough-cut capacity planning.  It allows for the easy creation of build schedules from Master Production Schedule (MPS) suggestions and the shop floor, and it suggests purchasing, production and transfer schedules to satisfy demand. Features of this module include variable planning horizons, dynamic capacity profiling and load leveling. This is a bucketless system. The calculation is regenerative and infinite, and can be fed into Forward Finite Scheduling.

Procurement Planning
Procurement Planning in SYSPRO assists the buyer by providing end-to-end visibility of the procurement process. Procurement planning covers the procurement process from supplier relationship management to order monitoring, to suggested forward ordering and changing in order to meet future requirements to linking component ordering and outside service subcontracting directly to Works Orders and/or Sales Orders.

Distribution Requirements Planning
Distribution Requirements Planning in SYSPRO is designed to optimize the movement of inventory in a supply chain environment so that demands can be met effectively and efficiently without relying on excessive stock holdings. If the Material Requirements Planning module is installed, a comprehensive view of the supply chain for each item is available. Companies in either the wholesale or manufacturing sectors, who have regional demand fed by one or more supply warehouses or manufacturing plants, would typically use Distribution Requirements Planning. The integration between the SYSPRO Inventory, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Bills of Materials, Work in Progress and Material Requirements Planning modules provides a comprehensive view up and down the supply chain.  Distribution Requirements Planning enables the Requirements planning module to suggest Supply Chain Transfers from one warehouse to another, instead of suggesting a Purchase Order or a Work Order. This is done by setting up a chain of Supplying Warehouses, so that the suggested transfer will be from the closest warehouse, resulting in stock being moved from oversupplied warehouses to those with a demand.

Goods in Transit
The Goods in Transit system provides greater management control over stock items that are in the process of being transferred between warehouses. It achieves this by monitoring warehouses transfers and supply chain transfers. Warehouse transfers are generated using the Inventory Movements program, where the transfer of an item from a source warehouse generates a detailed record of the transaction. Stock is depleted from the source warehouse at the time of confirming each line of the transfer. At the receiving warehouse, a review process with extensive selection criteria enables you to control the receipt of this stock. Supply chain transfers are generated using the S/O Entry program. The capture of a supply chain transfer order enables you to reserve stock for transfer at a later point in time (as opposed to an immediate transfer out catered for by Inventory Movements). The primary purpose of the Goods in Transit system is to manage the regular transfer of stock between multiple warehouses.

Customer Relationship Management
The SYSPRO Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system lets users track and manage all customer and supplier touch points. Customer correspondence, status, vendor relationships, marketing campaigns, service issues, product returns, warranty and repair histories, quote and sales order information are monitored and recorded, providing a 360 degree view of internal or external business relationships. SYSPRO CRM enables sales, marketing and customer support operations to work collaboratively to achieve total customer satisfaction.  The SYSPRO CRM system enables manufacturers to increase revenues and client satisfaction through optimal client management. In addition, it enables the manufacturer to decrease order cycle times and deliver product when required.  Real time information in CRM enables users to proactively anticipate the requirements of customers.

Quality Data Collection
The Quality module integrates the recording of quality parameters with the recording of progress data. The quality data items to be recorded are user-defined. They may be related to a machine, a product or a customer or they could be manually selected. The collected data is stored in a database, which can be queried directly or via an analysis tool. APS provides instant checks for trends and "blips" in the collected data and can be configured to provide warnings when processes reach an out-of-tolerance range.

Forecasting
The Forecasting module provides a simple, easy-to-use forecasting management tool.  Based on the available history, it suggests future stock replenishment, with the option of removing 'outliers' and enabling manual adjustment to the history. Manual adjustments might be needed in terms of market intelligence or unusual demand. Users can choose from a number of predefined Algorithms or can choose a Competition method where the system will select the best algorithm based on the ability of each of the algorithms to forecast the most recent period(s) The Competition method will choose the mathematical formula best suited to an item's historical sales and from that predict future sales. Some of the algorithms can be tuned by the user by changing parameters such as smoothing factors. A comprehensive Pareto (A, B, C) analyzer is built-in together with a degree of forecast approval workflow. In addition, a set of reports, both tabular and graphical in format, allow for easy reference and the ability to delve into the forecast detail.

Safety Stock
The safety stock highlights instances where stock falls below a prescribed level, for the Requirements Planning module to suggest ordering. Warehouse exception reporting also allows for reporting on all items where the on-hand stock level has fallen below safety stock.

Landed Cost Tracking
The Landed Cost Tracking module is designed to assist the tracking of imported goods and the establishment of an improved estimate of imported goods' overall cost. It also aids the calculation of a better actual cost at which to receive the goods, and the provision of an actual cost comparison to the various estimates made during the procurement cycle, together with the maintenance of an actual cost archive.

Blanket Sales Orders and Releases
The Blanket Sales Orders and Releases module is designed as an effective method of setting up contracts between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's) and their customers to provide an accurate means of tracking cumulative release quantities and converting them into sales order quantities. Currently, there are a large number of manufacturers who employ a manually-managed system which is error-prone as well as being time-consuming to maintain. Often the records of the supplier and OEM do not agree on what has been supplied to-date and there is no easy method to verify these figures. The Blanket Sales Orders and Releases module is aimed at providing a filtering program that enables the easy capture of a new release (or import of a release as an EDI file) as well as providing the necessary tools to manipulate the release and advise the customer of what has been accepted/changed and why. The module enables you to update an existing scheduled sales order automatically and provides an audit trail of deliveries so that disputes over quantities supplied to date can be resolved. The underlying problem for suppliers is that it takes so long to action a new release that management cannot examine the ramifications of any changes. The process is inherently difficult and error-prone, often resulting in the supplier incurring penalties for stopping the OEM's assembly line. The supplier cannot check that the OEMs are adhering to the contract, nor do they have time to establish their own capability of meeting the new requests. This results in missed delivery dates, emergency purchasing and production control in a permanent state of expediting. The Blanket Sales Orders and Releases module is specifically designed to split up the jobs involved so that the appropriate level of staff can be employed for each function:

• Sales can set up the parameters and contractual arrangements negotiated with the OEM.
• Entry clerks and/or EDI methods can be used to quickly record a new release.
• Management can review the new request comparing it with base data, contractual arrangements and production practicality. They can manipulate it to suit their needs and/or capability and accept the results.
• The sales order can be altered automatically to reflect the new accepted delivery schedule and a paper and/or EDI advice of the acceptance can be sent to the OEM.
• On shipment, the base data is updated for comparison with the next release, while a paper and/or EDI Advance Shipment Notice (Invoice) is sent to the OEM.
• At any time, management can examine the base data to resolve queries such as unbalanced opening cumulative quantities. Examination of the history of release acceptances may reveal the reason for over/under stocking or poor delivery performance and form the basis for negotiating the next contract.