Forecasting Blue Skies

Forecasting Blue Skies

Overview

Economies of scale are the tried and true methods for creating discounts. But in an industry where customization, competition, changing tastes and the pursuit of new and cool products are critical, large inventories can be cumbersome and forecasting can be impossible. Luckily, there is a company that satisfies all these needs while reinventing supply chain relationships. This company is PCH. PCH is an organization that aids companies in managing their chain of supplies. They do this by increasing information transparency along the supply chain through their many services.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

For many years, companies were vertically integrated; they owned their entire supply chain. Necessary in industries heavily laden with proprietary information, this method of management was incorrectly applied to industries that had only a limited number of exclusive parts and shared the rest with other products. As companies learned their products and their competition’s products shared a significant number of parts, a new wave of manufacturing methods was developed. Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) was developed as a method to create asset-light companies. Necessary when changing tastes meant large inventories would be costly paperweights in a short time, this method created many unforeseen problems. The economies of scale necessary to lock in low rates were eliminated as companies ordered fewer products more frequently. Also as companies forfeited the control over their entire supply chain, issues with logistics, manufacturing, and procurement proved troublesome.

A Multi-Stage Solution

Companies were in a quandary. Manufacturers were still producing the same number o...

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... rewards. Besides Manufacturing, Postponement, and Fulfillment services, PCH also offers services in creative, engineering, logistics, and compliance management. With all these services, PCH has taken a sizable chunk of liability. If any aspect fails along the supply chain, it is PCH’s responsibility to fix it. At the forefront of PCH’s risk management strategy is knowledge. Furthermore, PCH has implemented an aggressive environmental policy and supply chain security policy as well as requires all of their suppliers to be ISO Certified. With these requirements to work with PCH as well as their relentless effort to gain knowledge with their suppliers and clients, PCH has been able to manage their risks and make them a minimum. Though forecasting in such a volatile industry is tough, with proper supply chain management, PCH has avoided being under the weather.