Improving Supply Chain Communications (Dismantling the Tower of Babel)

The electronics manufacturing industry has evolved from vertical integration to outsourcing and distributed manufacturing. Unfortunately, the processes used to communicate within the new supply networks still contain many company-specific elements. Through our roadmapping efforts, the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) has identified a number of gaps that, if addressed, could simplify and improve supply chain communications in the electronics industry and beyond. Our earliest efforts focused on machine-to-machine communications on the shop floor and enabling distributed equipment to be monitored via the Internet. Next, we tackled the exchange of detailed product information between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. Most recently, work has focused on development of a single data exchange format to enable the exchange of complete, accurate data for printed wiring board manufacturing.