The Microcircuit Ecosystem — The Great Competition

The Microcircuit Ecosystem — The Great Competition

The Great Power Competition is back.  2022 National Defense Strategy – China is the Pacing Threat and Russia is an Acute Threat.   U.S. Trade Representative estimated in 2018 that Chinese theft of American I.P., costs U.S. firms between $225 billion and $600 billion every year (National Review), and U.S. National Debt continues to erode our economy at an alarming rate: $31.3Trillion (Oct 25th, 2022) - that equates to $247,822 for every Taxpayer.  

A National Supply Chain Strategy is critical for the U.S. to remain in this competition to win.  To execute, we need a workforce equipped with the skills and capabilities to design, implement, and manage a National Supply Chain System that will provide both economic and national security crucial to maintaining superiority in a rapidly changing world where data is the new oil and microelectronics encompass the technical capabilities that allow data to be processed at speeds which will determine the outcome of future warfare.   
ASCM NYC LI is focused on ensuring that Supply Chain Managers are ready to answer the call to duty through our education and certification programs.  Will Marsh, Vice President of Government Relations for TTM Technologies and President of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA) is hard at work building relationships in Washington DC to ensure laws are written, and funding is allocated to achieve U.S. superiority through the “onshoring” of the critical Microelectronic technologies including chips and boards where the chips are mounted.   
In an article below that was originally printed on Oct 17th, 2022 in I-Connect007, Will provides a PCB Legislative Update on HR 7677, detailing progress to ensure a “microelectronics ecosystem” which will clearly provide the U.S. with an advantage in this Power Competition.   

“Electronic industry association leaders like IPC, PCBAA, and USPAE have been trekking to Capitol Hill almost weekly this year to reinforce the dire state of the industry and seek additional co-sponsors for HR 7677, a bill supporting the American printed circuit board industry. However, with only 78 days until the end of the 117th Congress, it is not likely that anything will move by the end of this session. 
Introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in May, HR 7677, “Supporting the American Printed Circuit Boards Act of 2022,” is a testament to the domestic PCB, PCBA, and critical material supplier industry’s ability to advocate for sound legislation to stop the erosion of a once robust domestic PCB industry.
The bill was originally sponsored by U.S. Reps. Ann Eshoo and Blake Moore. It was purposefully structured to resemble the more famous CHIPS and Science Act.

It has two primary components: 
•  Three billion dollars in incentives, grants, and loans for facilities, equipment, workforce development, and R&D.
•  A 25% tax credit for U.S. companies to buy U.S. made PCBs.

At one point in the process for HR 7677, the tax credit was removed from the bill. This was more a procedural issue, according to Will Marsh, Vice President at TTM Technologies, and President of PCBAA. This move potentially enabled the tax credit to attach to other legislation, rather than a dilution of the bill itself. 
Industry and congressional sponsors remain confident there will be a reintroduction of all the bill’s primary components within the first week of the newly sworn in 118th Congress in January 2023, Marsh explains. 
“It is important to remember that we face a ‘microelectronics ecosystem’ issue,” he says. “And, as we like to say in the PCBAA, ‘chips don’t float.’”

To learn more about the genesis of the bill, read “Printed Circuit Boards: Past the Lobby and Onto the Floor,” an exclusive interview with U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), and Travis Kelly, CEO of Isola Group and chairman of PCBAA, which appeared in the July 2022 issue of PCB007 Magazine.”
Republished with permission of the author.
         
About the Authors

Will Marsh joined TTM in September 2020 as a Vice President of Government Relations (G.R.). His primary responsibility is to stand up the new G.R. function that is composed of many parts; leading federal advocacy efforts to influence congress, TTM Political Action Committee, State and Local incentives, business development & customer relationships where he aligns TTM priorities with federal programs and strategies. TTM (NASDAQ: TTMI), with 2021 sales of $2.2 billion, is a global leader in printed circuit boards and advanced Radio Frequency components specializing in aerospace & defense, automotive, medical, industrial, computing and other commercial and government markets throughout the world. TTM has 19,000 employees worldwide with 6,000 in the U.S. at 20 sites in 12 states. Will maximizes 27 years of Washington, DC experience, having served in the United States House of Representatives on both committee staff and on members’ personal staff. He represented over 90 public and private companies as an external consultant, business development manager, and government relations expert. Will earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Colorado State University and attended the Naval War College. He resides in Virginia with his wife and three children. 


Ronald Tabbitas, is on the ASCM NYC LI Director of Local Manufacturing Relations/Programs, and is Director of Government Compliance at TTM Technologies, with responsibility for all company regulatory compliance and government audit programs. With a long history in supply chain leadership in aerospace and defense, Ron has provided companies such as Northrup Grumman / Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems his leadership expertise, resulting in citations in ‘industry bench mark’ and ‘Best in Class.’ Ron Tabbitas is also an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s University, sharing his advanced skills and experience while instructing graduate level courses such as Operations and Quality Management, Problem Solving and Critical Thinking for Professionals.

How Planning Can Rescue the Supply Chain Improve Your Planning Process and Reap the Rewards

How Planning Can Rescue the Supply Chain

Improve Your Planning Process and Reap the Rewards
Published: March 1, 2022

Author: Mark Temkin, Director of NY Division, ASCM NYC LI
Editor: Melissa Freeland, Director of Digital Content Management

The current array of supply chain disruptions are a strong impetus to improve our core supply chain processes. A good place to start is with our planning functions. A few things we recently encountered are shared below. We offer several questions you can ask yourself as you evaluate your planning processes.

1. Improving forecasting accuracy by 5-10 points with better inputs and exception management can have a multiplicative impact on improving service and reducing excess inventory.
2. Regularly updating key item parameters like transportation lead times can greatly improve your available to promise accuracy.
3. Moving from a monthly to a weekly S&OP planning process can increase reaction time.

How do I know these steps can help?  Because I have been adopting these practices over the past two years.

Demand Planning

Let’s start with demand planning and some basic questions to help do an assessment of your current state. 

1. Are you measuring forecasting accuracy at the time you procure raw materials and build finished goods, and do you know what is causing forecasting errors and bias?
2. Are you collecting POS (point of sale consumer sales) and retail inventory data and collaborating with your major customers on forecasts?
3. Do you know which products are forecastable (via an algorithm) and which are not (requiring more human intervention)?

Coming out of the 1H of 2021, we discovered that we were over-forecasting our business by 10% and that customer forecasts lagged consumer trends.  What did we do?  We developed our own forecasts for those accounts in place of the customer forecasts and aligned with the customer on them.  We also created a weekly item exception process and a weekly planning meeting to increase our reaction time.

Our accuracy improved by an average of 15 points in the 2H of 2021 and our over-forecast bias was reduced.

Procurement Planning

Improved forecasting accuracy won’t yield full benefits unless it helps procurement and supply planners make better decisions.  We discovered two major issues that had to be fixed:

1. Procurement did not have accurate PO placement to raw material receipt lead times
2. They did not have adequate safety stock to buffer demand volatility, transportation delays and supplier performance issues.

The solve was to have the logistics function review all lead times and provide updates in real time into our ERP system.  While we had new supply gaps as lead times moved from 60 to 90 to 120 days, we also gained a more accurate understanding of what could be produced when.

Safety stock was focused on long lead-time, highly-volatile raw material supply from overseas.  Finished good safety stock targeted “A” SKUs with a goal of a 95% fill rate.  The process was started in Q4, but we expect to see service improvements in 1H of 2022.

Supply Planning

We redefined the role of a supply planner from production scheduling to a more strategic role leading the organization to achieve service targets while optimizing inventory. 

1. First, we had to improve training on our ERP system and leverage tools such as rough-cut capacity planning.
2. We had to improve collaboration on service recovery actions and communication across the organization.
3. We developed a weekly tracking of inventory levels (days of supply) separating inactive from active and developing action plans.

Over the course of 2021, we reduced our inventory levels by 27% while improving service as we focused on disposition of inactive and reducing the drivers of obsolete inventory in the future.  Supply planners had new tools to evaluate demand/supply balance and evaluate the accuracy of their item parameters. 

S&OP

How do you make sure all the planning functions are working in harmony and achieving the service, financial and cost goals the organization sets for them?  The S&OP process, which has gone through numerous iterations, renaming conventions and consulting paradigm shifts, is that vehicle. 

At its simplest, it is just a way to get planning, sales, finance, marketing and the executive team together to review the business plan and decide where corrective action is needed. 

1. Does your organization review the building blocks and key assumptions of the demand plan?
2. Does your organization identify where we have potential supply gaps well ahead of time and work on countermeasures?
3. Does your organization have a set of KPIs to evaluate each function’s effectiveness and where they need to improve?

Do your S&OP meetings create positive friction (debate of ideas and alignment on direction) vs being informational and presentation-oriented?  Is the business getting better at its core functions over time?

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the benefits of improving the planning process. This is an effort that should be concurrent with improving production efficiencies, sourcing options and transportation lead times all of which tend to get the headlines in the news. More and more research is showing that improving the upstream planning process (tip of the spear) will have disproportionate benefit to  downstream execution. Why don’t you lead the change at your organization? 

Carpe diem.

Mark Temkin, Board of Director, NY Division , ASCM NYC LI Mark Temkin has extensive experience leading demand and supply planning and S&OP processes in the CPG, high-tech, food and apparel industries.  His focus has been on increasing service levels, optimizing inventory and driving cost savings.  His focus on team building includes fostering a continuous improvement and highly collaborative culture. Currently, Mark is Senior Director of Demand Planning and S&OP at Radienz Living, a privately held cleaning products company based in Melville, NY.  Prior to that Mark led demand and supply planning at Harry’s Inc, a personal care products company, and managed demand, inventory and S&OP at Hain Celestial Group, Inc, a natural and organic products company. Mark holds a BA in political science from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from NYU.  He has spoken and written on a variety of topics including supply chain planning during COVID, best practices in S&OP and CPFR, and vendor-managed inventory.

How to Up Your Value by Tapping into your Small Parcel Provider

How to Up Your Value by Tapping into your Small Parcel Provider

 As your business faces high inflation now is the time to ask your suppliers how they can best provide additional value. An often overlooked source are your small parcel carriers. Many of their offerings provide hidden benefits that may align well with your business goals.

Sales Growth

If e-commerce is a major driver of your business make sure you ask your small parcel carrier the following questions:        

• How can we improve our email and SMS marketing strategies?
• Any recommendation for search engine optimization improvements?
• Best practices for providing customer loyalty and reward programs?
• Direction on website design and optimization?
  
  

Providers like UPS and FedEx have either external partnerships or internal marketing resources to assist with your demand generation initiatives. Their ultimate focus will be on your customer and providing them a clear and pleasant pathway to purchase your products.

International Expansion

Entering or penetrating global markets can be complex. Shipping carriers are a great resource to help overcome perceived obstacles.

• How can we best proactively manage customs clearance to avoid shipping delays?
• Processes to help quantify brokerage and confirm landed costs?
• Obtain information by country on currency exchange and prohibited articles?

All of the major providers in the industry have internal resources that can play a critical role in supporting your global expansion strategies. Partnering with your carrier’s International Account Executive would be a wise step when planning to expand to new international markets.

Cost Reduction

With staffing constraints being such a significant challenge today maximizing process efficiency and mitigating risk become vital cost components to your operations. Do not hesitate to ask for recommendations.

• How can we create a more efficient process from our order entry application to our shipping system to reduce processing errors and improve production?
• Suggested process improvements from our shipping system to our accounting platform to reduce day sales outstanding?
• Credit card fraud is a major issue, how can we mitigate this risk
        

The larger small parcel providers offer several value added technology solutions to support system integration and efficiency. In addition they have subsidiaries or partnerships that offer insurance products that can mitigate risk to your business.

With shipping carrier rate increases almost a guarantee each year it is imperative to ask each of your transportation providers how to maximize their impact. Reliable time in transit and shipment visibility alone are not enough.

Your company deserves greater value. Make sure you ask for it!

Marty Polizzi is a 35 year sales training professional with a specialization in Supply Chain negotiations. He is currently the Director of Education for APICS Long Island-NY City Chapter. This follows a 33 year career as a Sales Training Manager for UPS for the greater NY area. He has developed and facilitated extensive negotiation training with an emphasis on understanding key negotiation principles and practicing specific behaviors. His workshops are high energy and very interactive. Marty graduated from New York Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Communications and received his MBA in Marketing from Adelphi University.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation’s Solution to the Challenge of Poverty Driven Homelessness

The Shinnecock Indian Nation’s Solution to the Challenge of Poverty Driven Homelessness

In April of 2020, members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation decided to address the problem of homelessness within their tribe. Observations revealed three living situations.

• First, some homeless sleep in cars, tents,  or live inside substandard campers not equipped for winter living with little or no heat or running water.
• Second, others travel nightly from house to house to impose on the kindness of random citizens who allow them to sleep on their sofas. This creates overcrowded, unsafe living conditions and increases the potential for exposure to COVID-19, and other contagious diseases, to tribal members within our community.
• Last but not least, we identified a category of homelessness among those citizens who have their own land allotments but do not have the help, financial means, or knowledge and skill to build and maintain a livable home within a sustainable community.

Contributing Factors   

• Homelessness primarily takes the form of doubling up rather than sleeping on the street, therefore it is less conspicuous in Indian Country versus other communities.
• Across the United States, 1 in 3 Native Americans are living in poverty, with a median income of $23,000 a year.
• Overall changes in the US economy have especially impacted Native peoples, including the loss of a large number of jobs in construction and manufacturing, the decline of the minimum wage, and the increase in unstable employment.
• There is a declining relationship between working and a job’s ability to help tribal members get out of poverty.
• Employment is the most significant factor in driving poverty.
• The payoff to education is not nearly as high as the payoff to jobs.

Shinnecock Indian Nation Solution  

In response to the Nation’s need to prepare for and prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus as well as address its homeless and transient population, the Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees (COT) decided to plan, develop, and construct a 6-building Homeless Transitional Housing Development (HTHD) using funds provided by the Cares Act Funding. A one-acre site was chosen and cleared, and will include 5 one-bedroom sustainable Hunter Shelters Homes provided through Dynamic Supplier Alignment (DSA). The units are 12’ x 24’ and can be erected or taken down in one day leaving no footprint or impact to the environment. A  32’ X 48’ Chaleff design Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) permanent Services Building will also be constructed and can be used as an Emergency Storm Shelter that will withstand a category 5 hurricane. 

Our Homeless Transitional Housing Development (HTHD) will not be a permanent housing solution. Instead, it will allow our citizens a transitional environment with stable living conditions where they can safely shelter in place while working to improve themselves and their life circumstances. In addition to housing Shinnecock’s homeless population, our program will offer HTHD residents the training and services necessary to aid them in the next steps of resolving their housing dilemma. We applied this holistic thinking to the construct of our housing designs and have devised plans which offer tenants and other tribal members training and employment opportunities in new locally created and locally made sustainable building and clean energy technologies while living within our model housing development. We will connect residents with resources to aid in their own affordable housing goals and provide ideas for energy efficient and sustainable designs which they would incorporate into their own permanent living structures.

Working with Stony Brook University, Eastern Suffolk BOCES, and The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, we will create training programs that will certify and enable the licensing of a local workforce in all aspects of both the construction and clean energy installation and maintenance. This specialized workforce will include Shinnecock personnel and all others interested in learning these unique construction and clean energy applications, Supply Chain Management,  installation, maintenance, system monitoring and data collection skills. Union involvement combined with local supply chain development strategies will ensure employment goals and job placement are achieved in this fast-growing market segment. 

Equipped with the knowledge and expertise to construct and maintain these panelized structures and clean energy systems, the Shinnecock Indian Nation and Long Island community will be able to lead other nationwide parties interested in replicating and installing these economical, energy efficient and sustainable solutions starting with the disadvantaged communities across the nation and then the world to preserve and save Mother Earth. 

Phillip Brown has been the Shinnecock Nation Housing Director since December 2019. Prior to this position, Phillip worked more than 35-years in the home and commercial building industry within the towns of Southampton and Easthampton. Throughout his service for the Shinnecock tribe, Phillip attended national conferences where he was exposed to various tribal and renewable energy projects such as solar and wind that were being adopted across Indian Country. As a result, Phillip strives to embrace, educate, and include energy efficiency and renewable energy components in any new housing or building initiatives that he undertakes.