Today more than ever supply chain management is the most critical aspect of EMS manufacturing. The focus in the industry has changed from "are you lean and how fast do you turn inventory?" to "do you actually have the ability to manage and pipeline inventory so you don't run me out of product?" 4FRONT has always focused on meeting customer demand, even unexpected demand as a primary objective. After all, no customer has perfect insight on their requirements. Meeting these unexpected demands has helped 4FRONT distinguish itself from the pack. We utilize a combination of traditional “pipelining” strategies in conjunction with a system of kanbans to minimize the impact of sudden and dramatic spikes in customer demands or increases in component lead times that are commonplace in our industry today. The antiquated system of using MRP to drive purchase order requirements has proven ineffective.
