Excellence in Innovation
Sonic is the first electronics manufacturer (EMS) to create and deploy the Digital Supply Chain, We define digital supply chain as everything between raw MRP planning numbers and parts showing up physically in receiving to be fully automated, no human touch. The digital process compares MRP demand to supplier price & availability data, places orders to primary source or best fit data based on business rules, constructs an accurate PO from the suppliers own data, specifies ship method, obtains advance ship notifications, tracks delivery dates with carriers, updates the Sonic ERP to the most accurate delivery date, issues change orders as needed and accepts and approves invoices for accounting. Sonic no longer has Material Planning, Production Scheduling or Cost Accounting departments. These functions are pure math and handled by the computer. Sonic procures 1 million parts per week on behalf of 100 Silicon Valley OEMS. 65% of purchase order lines are managed digitally, enabling a team of 6 buyers to manage the exceptions and non-digital suppliers. Median supplier delivery is 3 days ARO, and median customer delivery is 28 days ARO. Comparable industry numbers would be approximately 30 days supplier and 90 days customer. Cost per PO line item is about $0.25 for API orders, and $5.00 for manual orders. Industry would be $25-$50 per po line item. Lead industry partners are Orbweaver for data integration and transport, and Digi-Key as largest supplier and most feature-rich APIs to integrate with.