Supply Chain by the Numbers
   
 

- May 31, 2013
   
  Supply Chain by the Numbers for Week of May 31, 2013
   
 

First Smart Phone to be Built in US Coming Soon; Ford Asks Employees for Plastic Bottles to Cut Costs; Time to Think about the Factory of the Future; Sony DADC Transforms to Survive
   
 
 
 

2000

Approximate numbers of workers planned for a new factory coming to Fort Worth, TX area to build the next generation Motorola smart phones, the unit's CEO said at a conference this week. Cell phone maker Motorola Mobility is now owned by Google. Nearly all cell phone assembly has long left the US for Asia (some postponement work remains), so this is an interesting move, and will be the first US-built smart phone. Having lost much market share in recent years, Motorola hopes for a comeback through a new Moto X line family of phones that will be made at the Texas plant (which will be operated by Flextronics), though the company acknowledges it will be reliant on some parts that will need to be brought in from Asia. The factory is expected to be up and running soon.
 
 



 
 
 

2 Million

Interestingly, the number of plastic bottles Ford hopes to acquire from employees annually to serve as feedstock for fabric made from recycled plastic, the company said in an announcement this week. That is to help keep the now higher cost of this plastic "yarn" down. Ford has set a mandate to suppliers that the fabrics in its seats must contain 25% or more recycled fabrics. The Ford Fusion hybrid in North America now contains 100% recycled fabrics. Overall, Ford uses 41 recycled fabrics across 15 vehicle lines globally.
 
 
 
 
 
50+

Number of third-party manufacturing and distribution clients Sony DADC has brought on in the past few years, transforming and likely saving its business. That according to company executives in a presentation at the Gartner supply chain executive summit last week. Sony DADC is the manufacturing, replication and distribution arm for physical disks and packaging for Sony's various entertainment businesses (movies, music, games, etc.), and not long ago it served only Sony. But with volumes declining due to on-line media, it was transform or die. The third-party business, often for competitors of Sony, now represents 50% of total volumes and continues to grow.
 
 
 
 
 

43%

Number of respondents to an IDC Manufacturing Insights study which said they had a formal program to analyze and develop long-term manufacturing strategies, according to a new research report issued this week. That means 57% or so do not really engage in such longer term planning. About 24% said they had informal approaches to such thinking, while another 16% said current issues dominated their attention and that 5-10 years ahead was too far to plan. 9% said they relied on outside info and experts as to manufacturing trends, while 8% did not know. Getting to the "factory of the future" takes time, IDC says, so such longer term planning is essential now.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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