Secrets to a Happy Supply Chain Marriage

The trust it takes to fall in love with that someone special is the same leap of faith that happens when companies choose to outsource their manufacturing needs. While outsourcing reduces overhead and accelerates time to market, companies must still collaborate around design, quality and new product introduction (NPI) processes with the entire supply chain, which can be a nameless faceless team dispersed globally. That’s a scary proposition, especially for a company that’s been hurt before by IP theft; however, for a successful relationship to work, both parties must have the courage to be open and vulnerable with each other. Similarly, for companies to effectively collaborate, they must also be willing to share critical and sensitive information that — if found in the wrong hands — could cripple a business…and break a heart.

Do you trust your supply chain partners enough to allow yourself to be vulnerable?

This is the conundrum of many companies that outsource today. They must deliver their product in a highly competitive, quick product cycle market. They must also maintain ownership and control of their IP. Today’s operations and supply chain executives are under extreme pressure to get to market and can’t sleep worrying about their IP.

Manufacturing Trends

• Small Business Manufacturing Is Up. One Reason: Reinvention
• 10 Ways Cloud Computing Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing

So what’s the secret? How can a business outsource manufacturing, collaborate with a large group of suppliers and still sleep at night secure in the knowledge that their IP is locked down? Learn the answers to these questions and much more when you attend the “Secrets to Maximizing Your Supply Chain Strategy” webinar on Wednesday, May 22nd at 8 am (PDT). Michael D. Keer, founder and CEO at Product Realization Group, and Vivien Roduit, CFO at Selectron Systems AG, will join Steve Chalgren, vice president of product management and strategy at Arena, to explain how to not only leverage – but grow – your supply chain economically, while still wringing risk out of the equation.

You’ll also learn how to:

• Reduce product error risk by increasing visibility throughout the product lifecycle.
• Communicate new products and changes to existing products to grow your supply chain.
• Extract the benefits of product lifecycle management (PLM) in the Cloud.

This Webinar offers valuable information for everyone ranging from CEOs and supply chain executives to engineers to document managers.