Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3 - 102

manufacturing sonic manufacturing technologies

Sonic's median delivery window
for turnkey electronics - buy,
build, test and ship - is less than
30 days after receipt of order.

automatically places the purchase orders. "Within three
minutes I can have 50 percent
of my parts on order and on
the dock in one to three days,"
Ginsberg says.
4. What doesn't get API
ordered is auto-sent to a
program called CalcuQuote.
CalcuQuote sends out the part
requirements to suppliers for
quotation by actual salespeople. Supplier responses are
returned by CalcuQuote to
the Sonic API procurement
system which then attempts
to buy from the new data. This
brings Sonic's automation up
to about 65 percent.
5. The final 35 percent gets
turned over to the Sonic purchasing team. "While automation works beautifully for most
parts, the last few percent
takes an increasing amount of
experienced sourcing, hand
holding and collaboration with
suppliers," Ginsberg says.

Digital Future
While speed is obviously important on prototyping and new
product introduction, it is also
highly advantageous in volume
production. "Our median delivery for turnkey electronics - buy,
build, test, ship - is under 30
days after receipt of order, while
the competition is typically at
two to four months," Ginsberg
says. "Shorter lead time means
our customers can continuously
adapt to actual market demand
while holding less inventory. The
best improvement to forecast
accuracy you can make is lead
time reduction; customers know
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Supply Chain World VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3

demand for next month far better
than the following quarter."
Ginsberg says a digital supply
chain is easier to implement than
most people think. Sonic's digital
supply chain does not require artificial intelligence, big data, robots
or data scientists. As a mid-tier
business Sonic contracts with
Orbweaver for data transport and
CalcuQuote to integrate human
quotes with the API process.
"It's very low cost and very
high payback," Ginsberg says.
"We are always developing new
API capabilities, and as our entire
industry goes digital, our mutual
call for new APIs will bring them to
market faster. Digital is an industry-wide solution and collaboration is to our own advantage."

Sonic certainly is better off for
going digital. The company has
been able achieve these results
without the typical overhead costs
of production scheduling, material
planning and cost accounting.
Shortage meetings are also a
thing of the past. "All factory data
and supply status are available
from the desktop as immediately
known," Ginsberg says. "Why
meet? Managers drop by throughout the day if they need an exception escalated."
He adds, "Nothing is faster,
more cost-competitive and higher
in customer satisfaction than digital, so this is where the market is
going. The quality and automation
of transactional data are the keys
to success."

Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supply Chain World - Volume 7, Issue 3