After two years of continuous optimization of the supply chain, Lenovo's costs in China have been comprehensively below Dell, but the globalization of the face is still the challenge that it must face.
On March 9th, Lenovo acquired the IBM Personal Division Movement eventually passed the review of the US Foreign Investor Committee.
The last obstacle to purchase is cleared, and the observers in the global PC market began to focus on new Lenovo and Dell. Although the second HP in the global PC market can not be ignored, but due to the dramatic existence and performance of the CEO, the future of the HP PC sector is not. There is no doubt that the industry agrees that the 2005 PC war will be staged between the new Lenovo and Dell.
At first glance, these two companies don't seem to be at one level - Dell's advantage is direct sales, while Lenovo still rely on channels. In the media covered report, "Lenovo Group announced 22.7 days, while Dell's China's inventory level is close to its global business inventory 4 level" is the most commonly referenced data. Of course, people think that Lenovo is not as good as Dell in the supply chain, and the latter's supply chain management has become an example of global business.
By the end of 2004, Lenovo Supply Chain gave outsider's impression is that procurement, production, distribution and logistics are unified; the upstream is international, domestic suppliers; the middle is Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen Huiyang 3 production plants (now, to add acquisition After successful IIPC); downstream is a huge channel network that is proud of consumers and SMEs and a part of commercial customers who are proud of consumers and SMEs. This profile is actually a typical "black box". In fact, after 2002 to 2004, a series of optimizations, the overall level of the Lenovo supply chain is not reached by Dell's standard, but because of the advantages of warehousing, manufacturing, personnel, finished delivery, management, Lenovo in China The cost is only about half of Dell, and this number is reduced by 15% last year. Dell has only one factory in China, and the association has three factories, and the area covered is average, so its response speed is shorter than the 1 week of Dale, only 4 days.
Considering that in 2005, Lenovo must face the global supply chain. Therefore, for it, the experience of the previously optimized supply chain has been precious.
means
Lenovo is the earliest manufacturer of supply chain software vendors I2 products in China. In June 2003, all modules of I2 were launched in Lenovo, and 4 consumption and household desktops in the three plants, laptops, server products were overwritten under the new supply chain management system. For Lenovo's supply chain, I2 makes it fully shared with the upper and downstream partners, letting its sales forecast, procurement plan, production plan to become automatic; simultaneous collaborative suppliers, improve efficiency, reduce both parties Stock.
Guo Minglei, General Manager of Lenovo Assistant President and Operation Management Department, with "huge" to describe the change in IT means to Lenovo. For example, before I2 comprehensive application, one order on March 10, 2005, to Lenovo, on the morning of the 11th, the production plan will extract the 10-day sales order, and use manual use according to production capacity. At 4 o'clock on the 11th, the order can enter the production plan and notify the factory. At this time, most of the material is prepared in its own repository, and the factory begins to prepare materials, including materials from the supplier to the log in the supplier. In this way, it is generally necessary to start production in the morning of the 12th, and the product will be able to enter the warehouse from the afternoon or 14th in the morning (48 hours in the middle). After the product is stored, because of the credit inspection of the customer's funding, it takes half a day, to the afternoon of the 14th, Lenovo may arrange distribution and installation services. "The entire delivery process of orders is 4 days." In supply chain management, product delivery time is an important indicator of its advantages and disadvantage.
Lenovo spent more than 1 year, using the I2 system to optimize the supply chain's results is exciting. Still in the order of March 10, now, in the morning order, the system can basically complete the automatic export production within 1 hour, which can be refined from which product is produced on the production line; in the afternoon, you can go to the warehouse After completing the preparation for 2 hours, the material is sent to the factory through a third party logistics and started production. In 2004, Lenovo specially improved the production process. It took 48 hours of production time, and now only 24 hours. Before, because the production plan information is very vague, the exact time and information of product production are not, the work can only be like the relay bar, according to the results "pass"; now, due to the information sharing, there is accurate start and completion schedule, At the same time as production, Lenovo can arrange customer commutation and transportation, and time is largely compressed.
"There is no information system, there is no supply chain optimization." Guo Mingli said. Today, the links between suppliers, channel manufacturers and associations are based on information systems: Lenovo to prepare production plans within 1 hour, then notify suppliers, third-party logistics put materials to the factory, Lenovo gives feedback, Both sides jointly monitor the consumption of materials in the warehouse.
in stock
Another important indicator for measuring supply chain management is inventory. After optimizing logistics and inventory, Lenovo's import component, such as CPU, etc., such as CPU, etc., is responsible for the Hong Kong International Purchasing Center. For some auxiliary materials, such as external shells, packaging materials, etc., Lenovo implements JIT mode - by the supplier according to the order demand, the material is responsible for transporting materials onto the production line.
In addition to the above two methods, 90% of raw materials were left, and Lenovo has implemented the supplier management inventory (VMI) mode. Previously, Lenovo's two-week inventory caused suppliers to supply in time, there will be similar cycles inventory. Now, Lenovo and suppliers have established VMI warehouses near the factory. The inventory of this part of the raw materials is not associated with the supplier. Lenovo has demand to go to the VMI warehouse. Between Lenovo and the main suppliers, the error between the real demand and inventory is adjusted daily, both sides can monitor the stock of materials in the warehouse through visual inventory management. Once the supplier finds the material consumption to the warning line, it will be replenished by a third party logistics. In the future, in order to allow suppliers to see more close to the real data, the inventory is more accurate, and the number of data exchange between Lenovo and them may increase to more than 4 times a day. The VMI mode makes Lenovo when the product is produced by the order, and the inventory is reduced from the original 14 days to 5 days. In addition, Lenovo also enabling the logistics operation business to third-party logistics companies, which also improves efficiency.
"Why is the domestic other companies do not do VMI?" Guo Minglei explained: "In the contrary to everyone, its obstacles are not suppliers." In fact, the concept of manufacturing VMI to the Upset supplier like Lenovo is very easy. .
For Lenovo, a major obstacle to implementing VMI is that the international material is brought about by the production site, many materials from international suppliers have customs clearance issues. "If the customs need a day, this time is difficult to compress in the supply chain." After China joined the WTO, Lenovo won the national preferential customs clearance policy, Lenovo information system and the three-way customs of the factory. Data docking, its material achieves fast customs clearance. Customs give Lenovo preferential policies to maximize the reaction speed of Lenovo on the supply chain. "Domestic enterprises are a very important ring when driving VMI." Guo Mingli said. Perhaps few people realize that Lenovo's two years in optimizing the supply chain, put a lot of time and energy in national preferential policies.
Two line combat
On Lenovo's completely unified supply chain management platform, two different supply chains are running different from sales methods: one is the "pull" supply chain driven by Dell in China. One is facing The channel network provides the "push" supply chain of stock supplies. The existence of these two supply chains is closely related to the business model of Lenovo. It is both the results of Diwang's diological transformation of PC strategic transformation in 2004, and strongly supported this strategy. The essence of the supply chain is that the data given by the front end order is accurate. If there is no distributors, wholesalers and retailers in the supply chain, but directly selling products to customers from the company, you can get orders accurate and quickly information. Vendors want to make the supplier's inventory as close to the lowest inventory, but there will be "dangerous icons" that will be out of stock. Once the real order data sold, the manufacturer should constantly give the components supplier real demand data. In this way, the predicted number will have to adjust with the true demand - unimportant parts is adjusted once a week, and the changed rapid and important parts require a few hours. Obviously, similar dynamic refreshing and adjustment frequencies are more dense, the more the supplier inventory is closer to the real needs.
It can be seen that the "pull" supply chain actually corresponds to the 2004 Lenovo Strategic Adjustment to use large customers and growth enterprises. At that time, Yang Yuanqing was misunderstood as the risk of direct sales transformation, and insisted that Lenovo needed a new method, and urged the channel to directly "take care of the commercial customers". Lenovo even selected some growth enterprises even in 4 regions of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Beijing. On the battlefield of this commercial customer, Lenovo and Dell have been in the potential. New Lenovo Coo Liu once said that in 2005, Lenovo's commercial customer increment increased from less than 10% in 2004 to 30%. And on the supply chain of the customer "pull", Lenovo can be "not lost to Dell" because of the I2 SCM system.
"In 2005, we have to do system incremental optimization in the pull supply chain." Guo Ming Lei said. In 2005, Lenovo's "pull" supply chain is increased from 10% to 30%. "This is like pressure testing, due to increased pressure, not only high production requirements, but also requires the connection between each link to be accurate. For example, Lenovo is now no longer just sent to the channel, but must go to the door And even the door to the table, before delivery, you should also notify the customer service to install and arrange training. This, any one of the subsection may cause the user's dissatisfaction. Therefore, this supply chain running in 2004 is to withstand the pressure. "
An additional "push" supply chain refers to the traditional supply chain of association through channel selling products. The production orders on this supply chain cannot be as accurate as they directly face the company, which requires Lenovo to predict market demand, and strengthen management of channel stocks. Due to the accuracy of production prediction, the operation of the supply chain directly affects the supply chain, Yang Yuanqing is divided into 18 partitions in 2004, and the original seven major districts are divided into 18 partitions, while making themselves and the partition managers The next layer is separated as possible in the tissue structure. In fact, on the basis of unavoidable channels, the supply chain principle - segment partition and shortening the transmission path, not to make orders and accessories predictive data more accurate, adjust the frequency more dense, thereby reducing supply Chain cost.
In 2003, Lenovo has begun to spend great effort to promote channel inventory management. "How many goods are received every day, how many goods, inventory, the inventory, we monitor the information system similar to Mini ERP." After the association encourages the reseller and distributors to strengthen interaction, let their inventory reach rationalization and minimize. Lenovo is likely to concentrate on inventory of most distributors in a certain region, and perform visual management. This is not only convenient for Lenovo to make a macro-control, and the relationship between dealers and distributors will become a Lenovo and supplier: the dealer is not available, the third-party logistics will replenishment, so that inventory is not laminated . In 2004, Lenovo built a carrier network with 39 central cities. If it truly concentrates a library, its cost will be reduced, and it may only need to establish a warehouse in seven or eight centers. "We are doing this argument." Guo Minglei said: "At present, we are mainly helping channels to reduce stocks." Doing so will benefit from the production and suppliers of Lenovo whole supply chain.
challenge
These optimizations conducted on the supply chain have made its costs in China have been lower than Dell. But only this does not think that Lenovo has surpassed Dell on the supply chain. A supply chain expert reminded: "The supply chain is a game."
Lenovo does not know this truth. In the past, Lenovo only produced laptops in Shanghai, not a desktop. From 2003 to 2004, COO Liu Jun led a group that has been demonstrating whether it is worthy of desktop in Shanghai. At that time, this team found that the new plant will result in the rise in manufacturing cost, but the overall supply chain of Lenovo can be optimized because this initiative is optimized because of the production desktop, East China, and the surrounding area. Guangdong Lower supply. After calculations, they found that from the overall supply chain, Lenovo is earned. So, Lenovo decided to produce desktops in Shanghai. In 2004, Lenovo Supply Chain Cost saved tens of millions, and the delivery time was also shortened. Therefore, after Liu Jun said: "The supply chain is to look at the whole game."
In 2005, Lenovo's Chinese chess would be placed in the world. Although the IBM business of Lenovo, IBM business has not crossed with Lenovo China, but in the next 18 months, the new Lenovo manager must examine its resources from the perspective of the global supply chain. In the future, Lenovo just won the China Supply Chain Bureau in 2004 will be relieved.
Lenovo managers need to consider the global supply chain how to chess? Once the Lenovo product is sold overseas, it will not be entirely in China. New Lenovo is now busy argumentation, how to distribute production to future global pattern, and many problems will soon put on the desktop, such as IBM in India's factory factory? What should I do in the Scottish factory ...
"In fact, in 2006, Lenovo will turn only one international supply chain." Guo Mingli said. Although everything will be re-layout, she and her colleagues have found that from 2002 to 2004, Lenovo didn't have anything about the supply chain optimization around the supply chain - this is to manage the global supply chain. Good warm-up
