Transforming a Global Supply Chain Through Data Process Mining

Manufacturers can’t experience success without a healthy supply chain. A well-functioning supply chain ensures components are available when needed, orders are fulfilled accurately and efficiently and products are delivered on time to customers. For electronics companies, any disruptions in the supply chain can lead to major delays and, ultimately, dissatisfied customers.

Achieving customer satisfaction on key variables impacted by supply chain requires a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain. But how can the power of process mining be harnessed to achieve this?

Prior to using digital tools, supply chain inefficiencies were primarily addressed through manual and often reactive measures. Companies relied heavily on methods like spot checks and audits to identify issues. These were often time-consuming processes that were difficult to standardize across different teams and locations. While relying on experience and intuition can be valuable, it could lead to subjective conclusions that potentially overlook the root causes of inefficiencies.

The right solution means addressing key aspects of an increasingly complex problem, including coordinating multiple data sources into a cohesive strategy to manage global, ever-changing complexity. And it’s made worse when data is stored in different systems and formats, making consolidation of this information across a vast system of operations even more difficult, and often resulting in a murky view of the overall state of a supply chain. 

While this is a generalization of how a team might have approached supply chain optimization in the past, this method's inadequacies are plain to see. A healthy, agile supply chain for the digital age demands a digital platform.

Companies focused on driving superior customer experience constantly seek ways to enhance operations. Over the past few years, the emergence of software platforms that perform data mining has resulted in significantly improved overall supply chain efficiency and accuracy. These platforms leverage vast amounts of internal data to uncover hidden patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement. Analyzing this data allows companies to glean valuable insights into how processes are performing and identify areas for optimization.

Over the past two years, Molex has embraced this technology, implementing a third-party data process mining tool. The platform serves as a figurative X-ray machine for the company’s operational systems, scanning and interpreting the digital footprints left behind by every business transaction. These footprints include information such as who initiated a transaction, when it occurred and how it progressed through its lifecycle.

Generally, the tool provides data mining capabilities in three ways. By recording the digital footprints across every platform company-wide, the solution delivers a full view of the company’s operations. Secondly, by producing an end-to-end process map of operations, the platform pinpoints specific areas to improve. Comparing actual paths to the expected ideal paths allows the software to identify inefficiencies and suggest improvements. Finally, process mining is used to optimize master data. This core information, which includes details such as customer information, product specifications and pricing, needs to be accurate and consistent across the board. This helps avoid errors and delays in the supply chain.

For global manufacturers, modern supply chains present complex and ever-shifting challenges. Using data process mining addresses these challenges head-on and significantly improves overall supply chain performance.

Inconsistent lead times once caused delays and uncertainty in production planning. Suppliers would promise delivery within a specific timeframe, and then the actual timeframe would slip by weeks or even months, potentially causing domino impacts for manufacturing lines and delivery times. The data process mining tool tracks and measures lead times for each supplier and component, highlighting discrepancies between promised and actual delivery times. With this information, more accurate lead times can be reported to suppliers, improving production planning and reducing delays. Through this process, predicting lead times can be made up to 40% more precise. 

Errors in master data, such as incorrect quantities, prices or terms, can lead to order inaccuracies and delays. This means late deliveries on the receiving end, forcing manufacturers to correct and resubmit orders to suppliers. By analyzing master data, the process mining software flags errors and inconsistencies throughout each step of the operation. With this information, manufacturers can proactively correct errors before they impact order fulfillment. The increased visibility and analytics result in significantly fewer order delays. 

Late deliveries from suppliers disrupt production schedules, impacting a company’s ability to meet customer expectations for both lead times and order deliveries. Using the process mining tool offers a clear analysis of supplier confirmation rates and advanced ship notifications (ASNs). This allows the buying team to quickly address supplier issues and delays, ultimately improving on-time delivery. Furthermore, as the buying team's familiarity and engagement with the tool increases, the tool's effectiveness in identifying and resolving delivery bottlenecks continues to improve.

By tackling these fundamental supply chain challenges, electronics manufacturers can strengthen operational resilience, enhance supplier relationships and empower employees to take charge of their internal tasks. Molex is doing just that with a powerful investment in data mining capabilities that support dramatically improved outcomes in our complex, global supply chain. 

Molex is dedicated to continuous improvement of its overall customer experience. This desire to give customers an excellent experience drives the company’s pursuit of supply chain optimization. Using a data process mining platform is just one way we strive to operate at peak efficiency, delivering high-quality connectivity solutions accurately and on time. This unwavering commitment to excellence enhances Molex’s position as a global leader in electronic components and — more importantly — helps foster long-lasting relationships with customers the world over.