TFI Launches Industry’s Most Comprehensive Outsourcing Audit Program

In response to electronic-system companies’ challenges in global outsourcing management and supply chain, Technology Forecasters Inc. has developed a multi-functional program deploying a team of TFI consultants to finally enable a complete audit of key performance metrics and their implications across the extended enterprise. The program is completely configurable and scalable to OEMs and their EMS suppliers, in all size categories and in all industries, whether new to the outsourcing strategy, or trying to break free of unworkable legacy relationships.

“In many respects, the historical outsourcing model is broken,” contends Bruce Rayner, TFI Vice President, Director of Research and Consulting. “With notable exceptions, the industry as a whole is failing in the most basic economic measures of business success; yet overcapacity and globalization continue their relentless two-pronged attack on electronic product designers and manufacturers. Companies must engage with their outsourcing suppliers in new ways to ensure the viability of the industry,” he concluded.

In spite of all the evidence indicating poor financial performance, companies continue to execute flawed strategies because they are unable to see the complete picture, according to TFI analysts. Each entity in the extended enterprise operates in a vacuum. The TFI Outsourcing Audit program will address these challenges by providing a complete array of consulting services, across the extended enterprise, including:

Geographic price and risk analysis through Charlie Barnhart’s Outsourcing Navigator program.
Current status maturity measurement leveraging eKNOWtion’s proven Supply Chain Maturity Monitor.(SCM²) and roadmap for supply chain advancement.
End to end supply chain assessment for network and inventory optimization to ensure lowest total cost while preserving service levels using advanced optimization tools.
Environmental audit, including both product criteria (WEEE, RoHS, EuP, and other requirements on the horizon to get ahead of the curve) and process criteria—all resulting in greater profitability.
Relationship-management audit based on best practices gleaned during TFI’s renowned customer and supplier relationship programs conducted for hundreds of clients during the past 20 years.
Evaluations of client’s information technology choices to manage supplier relationships, selection of EMS / ODM suppliers, and organizational structure for managing suppliers based on TFI’s EMS/ODM Report Card and Buyers’ Guide, IT benchmarking, and continuing research.
Recommendations for measurably improving performance in all of these areas, supported by best practices and expert advice.

”The global extended enterprise has reached a level of complexity where there is a critical need for a comprehensive, multi-enterprise program to bring all key players and challenges together and create fresh sustainable solutions,” noted Pamela J. Gordon, TFI’s President and author of Lean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment.. “Our clients have been telling us they need an objective third-party with deep industry experience to help them address these challenges, TFI has been serving the industry in this capacity since 1987, and recently we have supplemented our team to address all these issues at once. TFI is uniquely positioned to bring all the key elements of such a program to bear on these challenges.”

Comprising closely coordinated expertise multiple TFI consultants, this comprehensive Outsourcing Audit brings new levels of efficiencies to a wide range of functions and disciplines within the extended enterprise. This well-documented and proven methodology is configurable and scalable to OEMs of all sizes and in all industries, whether new to the outsourcing strategy, or laboring under legacy inefficiencies and models. TFI’s globally-based consultants provide the objective third-party global perspective to help clients improve not only their own balance sheet but also to understand and improve outsourcing decisions reaching into today’s complex extended enterprise. The key elements of the TFI Outsourcing Audit include:

1. Manufacturing and Outsourcing Best Practices.

2. Audit of Existing Processes and Honing of Competitive Practices.

3. Audit of Risk Mitigation Processes and Management.

4. Audit of Outsourcing Management Process.

5. Audit of Supply Chain and Supplier Relationships.

6. Audit of Total Cost of Ownership.

7. Optimizing Outsourcing Decisions while Accelerating Product Introduction.

8. Efficient and Profitable Paths to Meeting New Environmental Requirements

Posted by Jennifer Read, October 23rd, 2006