Flex Pulse takes on the supply chain – and wins

The numbers are staggering—$26 billion in revenue, 1.2 million active parts, 20,000 suppliers, 1,000+ customers with their distinct supply chains and 120 manufacturing sites. But just one company.

It's enough to make your head pop, actually. How can contract manufacturer Flex possibly make all that work? The answer is two words – Flex Pulse. Serving 6,000 users worldwide, Flex Pulse is a cloud-based visibility platform dedicated to coordinating everything in supply chain. It stretches across all 12 industry segments the company services ranging from automotive to digital health with high tech devices and energy in between.

“Speed is everything in the supply chain, “explains Marcin Fic, vice president of supply chain solutions for Flex. “And Flex Pulse is powerful enough to take 10 days out of our supply chains and keep it out,” he continues.

Fic will detail how that and more is possible with Flex Pulse on the second day of the NextGen Supply Chain Conference at the Chicago Athletic Association April 16-17. His session is set for the second day for 2:30 to 3:15 pm.

Quite simply, Flex manufactures parts, components and finished assemblies for companies ranging from Apple, Hewlett Packard, Ford, GM and Ericsson, to name just a few prominent customers. In all likelihood, you use Flex products every day and have no idea that you do.

Register for the NextGen Supply Chain Conference here.

That's ok. Job one for Flex Pulse is to manage the supply chains that allow those parts to be designed, prototyped, manufactured and distributed. It is the company's internal platform (not for sale although customers do ask) for maintaining service levels and quality with robust efficiency.

“Product demand in general has changed lately,” explains Fic. “It used to be much more U.S. and Western European centric. Not anymore. Today, demand is much more distributed across the world. That requires changes in how we manage supply chains. At the same time, customer expectations are tougher than ever with unseen levels of customization just assumed. And that doesn't get into trade issues, tariffs and the like which Flex Pulse also manages.”

Flex Pulse provides end-to-end transparency and noise suppression along the way. Noise? What noise? “The noise of too much data that gets in the way of providing supply chain visibility,” says Fic.

Just as important, Flex Pulse works for the customer too. It improves supply chain speed, lowers costs and improves all supply chain efficiencies. Flex Pulse allowed Flex to accelerate demand propagation upstream Supply Chain, as well as improved speed at which

Flex can adapt to demand and supply changes. With full visibility and prioritization of exceptions, Flex' supply chain professionals can take immediate actions to mitigate risk and maximize service level.

When asked what is most important for companies interested in similar supply chain efficiencies, Fic cites three key factors.

“The first is realizing that visibility is essential to supply chain success,” says Fic. “Second, you want that to be actionable visibility that identifies exceptions and makes decisions faster. And third, your data doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough. Over time you will find ways to remove data noise.” Those three are the inspiration behind Flex Pulse. And it works.

Gary Forger is special projects editor for Supply Chain Management Review. He can be reached at [email protected].

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