INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANNING FOR HIGH-TECH MANUFACTURING DATA SHEET

Steelwedge Integrated Business Planningfor High-Tech Manufacturing

To respond, high-tech companies need a deep understanding of customer demand to maximize assets and �nished goods inventory. By rethinking existing, siloed processes and developing new ones that anticipate demand, companies are able to react more quickly to the unexpected. This results in high inventory turns and lowered lead-times from order to delivery.

Leading Information Technology research and consultancy, Gartner, summarized in their Top Supply Chain 25 report:

Role of Integrated Business Planning in High-Tech Manufacturing

To future-proof your process, you must engage C-level stakeholders in the strategic planning and ensure that critical decisions are data-driven and timely. Using an integrated technology that provides insight into multiple data sources, you can:

Page 1 of 2 | © 2013 Steelwedge Software, Inc. All rights reserved. – info@steelwedge.com – 925.460.1700

No industry is challenged more by extremely short product lifecycles and high levels of competition than high-tech manufacturers. In just the past three years, manufacturers have been forced to balance between increasing demand and supply pressures in a variety of ways:

Fickle Demand: On average, consumers change mobile devices every 7 months

Escalating Variability: Demand is rapidly ramping for con�gure-to-order customization

Uneven Markets: Emerging markets lead growth but regional purchase and use is irregular

Volatility: Manufacturing supply chains face ever-increasing threats from unexpected natural

disasters such as the Japanese tsunami and Thai �oods

Manage a global �nancial budget tied to sales numbers, revenues and operational forecasts

Maintain high-level, global visibility into external demand requirements from channel

partners, VARs, and distributors

Anticipate vendors’ supply constraints and react to long lead-times for components

Optimize inventory levels and maximizing customer service levels

Forecast option attach-rates using statistical bill of materials (BOMs)

Allocate capacity and raw materials across multiple suppliers based on overall capacity

utilization and pro�ts

Introduce new products based on historical performance and curve modeling

Enable con�gure-to-order as well as build-to-stock business models in the same

environment.

”

“ Leaders in high-tech have moved beyond historical demand forecasting to forward-looking demand management by pulling in multiple data sources in the short-term, midterm and long-term to sense and shape demand for a more pro�table product and aftermarket response.

Page 2 of 2 | © 2013 Steelwedge Software, Inc. All rights reserved. – info@steelwedge.com – 925.460.1700

Steelwedge High-Tech Spotlight: Powering a FAST philosophyfor more agile Enterprise Networks Business

A leader in wired and wireless secure network solutions uses Steelwedge S&OP to stay in front of global market shifts. In fact, in 2011 when its market took a 3% hit, this company put in its 7th sequential quarter of increased revenues and logged 25% year over year growth.

Behind the success: it’s FAST (Flexible, Agile, Streamlined and Transformed) operating philosophy driven by S&OP to bring together the right people, process and technology. Key outcomes included:

The company’s closed loop planning process connects its demand and supply while monitoring margin and revenue in real time. That visibility allows the company to identify and react to emerging business trends by analyzing—versus chasing-- key business data.

substituted information for inventory

partnered with suppliers to reduce in-bound lead-times

postponed inventory closer to customer demand

utilized appropriate performance metrics, e.g. end-to-end pipeline time

Steelwedge Software, Inc.

Steelwedge integrated sales, operations and �nance planning solutions provide the "shock absorbers" to recognize, recalibrate and respond in a volatile environment. Business agility starts with Steelwedge for a clear line of sight from plan to performance to pro�t. For additional information, please email us: info@steelwedge.com.

Steelwedge Advantages for High-Tech Manufacturers

INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANNING FOR HIGH-TECH MANUFACTURING DATA SHEET

For the Sales Team:

Enable collaborative forecasting for VARs, distributors, customers, and sales

Power plans at any level of detail including con�guration packages

Integrate with the sales pipeline from CRM to support opportunity management

Provide annual operating plan (AOP) visibility as part of S&OP process

View cross-functional demand plans (sales, marketing, product management, etc.)

For the Product Management Team:

Develop attach-rate forecasts to drive mix forecasting for products (i.e. laptops)

and key components

Provides extended functionality that will support Fixed Bill of Material (BOM), Planning BOMs or

“derived attach” rates for strategic components based on actual history or pipeline.

Forecast at the option level or the planning BOM level. See where parts are used

across multiple platforms and compare total demand forecast vs. attach rate forecast.

Robust control of planning granularity with intuitive, slider-based data selection

For the Planning Team:

Drive company speci�c planning processes with One-Click Planning™ alert-driven work�ow

Provide planning process visibility and progress reporting

Drive assigned or exception-based review policies

For the Executive Team:

Consolidate supply, demand and �nance hierarchies into one comprehensive model

Enable more detailed planning assumptions via relationship attributes (i.e., customer speci�c

pricing, source speci�c costing).

Model business complexity and global volatility risks

Explore options to resolve and balance gaps

Generate upside/downside demand scenarios

Enable capacity-adjusted scenarios to resolve exceptions.