Executive summary
The goal - Transform your global supply chain network
Are you trying to evolve from a forecast- to a demand-driven automotive environment? Sharing real-time information with a global supplier network can be difficult. The secure wireless supply chain solution for automotive can help by increasing visibility of order, inventory and distribution information throughout your global supply chain. This solution provides the foundation for seamless communication and coordination throughout the extended supply chain.
The advantage - Facilitating a demand-driven supply chain
The secure wireless supply chain solution for automotive acquires up-to-date data, transforms it into actionable information and distributes the right information—in real time—to the people who need it when they need it. Improved communications help ensure that the global supply chain, distribution centers and factories are highly responsive to change.
Our solution's approach helps enhance enterprise security across all partners and many device types. Wireless devices help automate manual tasks—such as ordering, invoicing and bill processing—to reduce inventory management and distribution costs.
Content is made available on secure Web sites and transformed for display on supported devices. For suppliers to participate, they only require dedicated Internet access.
The secure network infrastructure can be the cornerstone for other productivity enhancing applications that require efficient communication with suppliers, distribution centers, factories and dealerships, including:
- Factory monitoring
- Quality control and asset tracking
- Dealer collaboration
The benefits - Deliver the right car faster
The secure wireless supply chain solution for automotive is designed to enhance a manufacturer's existing supply chain infrastructure, enabling better communication throughout your supply chain network. We can help you:
- Base production and planning decisions on real-time information, shared between suppliers, factories and distribution centers.
- Sense and respond to situations with better coordination and improved productivity that comes from the use of wireless devices.
- Reduce out-of-stocks that threaten factory throughput by improving replenishment processes.
- Improve supply chain information to support better capacity management and quality control.
- Reduce the amount of days in the production cycle time so manufacturers can deliver the right car, to the right location, at a lower cost, faster than ever before.
Business view
The goal - Share accurate information in real time
Are you experiencing problems with out-of-stocks, high inventory costs or incorrect shipments? Do inventory management or delivery problems result in line stoppages? Decrease your production cycle times by securely sharing sensitive production data with your global supply chain participants. Enhance data sharing and visibility with real-time access to information for faster, proactive decision making.
The advantage - IBM and Cisco relationship synergy
IBM and Cisco Systems have a dedicated relationship that spans more than seven years, helping customers achieve competitive advantage by offering a shared strategy of integrated solutions, technologies and products to help them reach productivity, IT improvement and business resilience objectives.
- IBM has more than 25 years of automotive industry experience with a client base that includes major automotive suppliers, OEMs, distributors and dealers.
- Cisco and IBM ranked number one and number two, respectively, in the 2004 Yankee Group study for IP telephony deployment preference in 2005 and 2006.
- Gartner named IBM the "magic quadrant" leader in supply chain.
- Cisco customers include over 90% of the largest OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
- At IBM and Cisco we aggressively implement joint solutions within our own companies—serving as case studies and test labs for our customers.
The benefits - Reduce automotive supply chain complexity
Wireless devices provide automotive companies with an advantage to sense and respond, enabling greater communication among global supply chain participants. With IBM and Cisco you can integrate mobility into your supply chain operations without worrying about increasing your security risks. We can help you:
- Make proactive decisions faster with virtual real-time visibility and access to information.
- Automate routine and manually intensive tasks, such as straight reordering, invoicing and bill processing.
- Reduce inventory management with the ability to track product flows.
- Increase customer service levels and improve replenishment strategies with product flow visibility from automobile conception to delivery.
- Shorten delivery timeframes by increasing your flexibility to react immediately to changing business demands.
- Minimize costly shipment errors by facilitating partner communications and virtually eliminating manual processes.
- Reduce the risk of security breaches while offering mobile access to data.
- Gain a more secure foundation for future manufacturing productivity applications.
The approach - Improving inventory information management processes
As part of an initiative to improve efficiency and enhance customer service, one of our clients, a leading manufacturer and assembly corporation with employees in more than 50 countries, determined it needed to streamline information management processes within its manufacturing and distribution supply chain. Specifically, the company wanted to improve the speed and accuracy of its inventory information management processes. They saw the tremendous opportunity to leverage leading-edge radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to deliver real-time insight into its business-critical supply chain processes and inventory information.
The client turned to IBM Business Consulting Services to help infuse its supply chain with more responsive, efficient inventory management processes. We helped the company design, develop and implement a next-generation manufacturing and distribution supply chain.
The financial advantage - Drive down your costs and rev up revenues
Reduce costs, improve capacity management and drive supply chain efficiency. The secure wireless supply chain solution for automotive can help you:
- Reduce costs in supply planning, demand planning, inventory management, distribution, transportation, logistics and warehousing.
- Improve service through techniques such as speed-to-delivery and build-to-order, reducing the need for discounting.
- Enhance revenues resulting from supply chain achievements such as higher customer satisfaction.
Technical details
The issues - Secure wireless communications a concern?
Are you considering implementing wireless devices in the factory or throughout your supply chain, but concerned about security? We offer a solution to enhance your existing supply chain infrastructure along with an excellent platform for implementing other applications that require secure wireless communications. Share information among members of the extended supply chain from dealers to product development managers, factory locations and distribution centers.
The benchmark - Innovative solutions from world leaders
IBM and Cisco provide a system approach, not just point products, integrating your overall enterprise infrastructure—an approach which is essential for maintaining security.
- IBM offers core technologies that result in over 6,000 patents per year including those particularly relevant to automotive organizations.
- Cisco hardware and software products have established the company as a world leader in networking for the Internet.
- IBM is a leader in driving automotive standards within Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi), Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), Japanese Automotive Manufacturers Association (JAMA), and others around the globe.
- IBM and Cisco Alliance solutions are built on open standards, enabling communication across systems for faster deployment of applications.
The components - A complete supply chain solution
IBM Global Business Services provide business strategy consulting, transformation planning, as well as best practices methodology and technology strategy. IBM Global Technical Services provide program management, software and networking services. IBM and Cisco offer a comprehensive infrastructure for secure wireless supply chain management. Components include:
- IBM System x™ servers are designed to deliver exceptional availability, simplified manageability, outstanding performance and revolutionary scalability.
- IBM WebSphere® Process Server helps ensure interoperability and flexibility as part of your service-oriented architecture (SOA) through adoption of popular standards, such as Web services, JMS, XML, and many more.
- IBM WebSphere Partner Gateway provides a consolidated B2B gateway for partner community integration.
- IBM WebSphere Application Server delivers the security-rich, scalable, resilient application infrastructure you need for a service-oriented architecture.
- Tivoli® Identity Manager and Access Manager provide security-rich, automated and policy-based user management to help effectively manage user accounts, access permissions and passwords from creation to termination across the IT environment.
- Tivoli Security Compliance Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager act as an early warning system by identifying security vulnerabilities and security policy violations for small, medium and large businesses.
- Cisco security products including NAC, VPNs and firewalls.
- Cisco routing and switching infrastructure, such as integrated services, routers and catalyst switching.
- Cisco wireless LAN products.
- Cisco Unified Communications products.
The implementation - Wireless supply chain improves manufacturing
A leading manufacturer and assembly corporation with employees in more than 50 countries determined it needed to streamline information management processes within its manufacturing and distribution supply chain.
Using Intel RFID technology, IBM Global Business Services helped the company design, develop and implement a next-generation manufacturing and distribution supply chain. An RFID tag can now be embedded with a wide range of data, including everything from a product description to an expiration date and price; in contrast, barcode data can be used only to identify groups of products.
The cost of ownership - The bottom line
The secure wireless supply chain solution for automotive can help you:
- Improve operational efficiency by integrating disparate systems.
- Maintain existing legacy systems while integrating new wireless supply chain technology using Web services.
- Consolidate resources using a highly scalable messaging infrastructure to help reduce costs.
- Reduce system maintenance and upgrade costs.
- Lower total costs due to fewer part numbers and higher part reuse.
