1. INSOURCING CONSOLES:
IMPROVING SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE
AT ELECTRONIC THEATRE CONTROLS
Mark Cigich
Dan Sutter
Sanika Abhyankar
Abhinav Tallavajhula
Shichuan Quan
Center for Quick Response Manufacturing
www.qrmcenter.org
Director
Professor Ananth Krishnamurthy
Project Assistants
Ben Quirt & Debjit Roy
Thursday, April 23, 20151

2. OUTLINE
Thursday, April 23, 20152
 About Electronic Theatre Controls
 Focus Target Market Segment (FTMS)
 Structure
 Supply chain
 Project motivation
 Project goal
 Project approach
 Analyses
 Recommendations
 Results

3. COMPANY BACKGROUND
Thursday, April 23, 20153
 Founded in 1975
 $200 M company
 Locations in Middleton,
London, Germany,
Hong Kong, Netherlands
 Products include dimmers,
LED lighting, theater controls
and architectural lighting
 Leaders in theatrical lighting
Consoles
Lighting Fixtures

4. PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Thursday, April 23, 20154
Broadway hit Dreamgirls, US
The London Studios, UK
Grand Mosque, U.A.EQintai Grand Theater, China
Deal Or No Deal, South AfricaEurovision,Ukraine

5. FOCUS TARGET MARKET SEGMENT
Thursday, April 23, 20155
 CONGO SR:
 Premium console mainly for the European market
 70% sales in Europe and 30% in the US
 Flagship Console, highly complex

6. CONGO SR STRUCTURE
Thursday, April 23, 20156
TOP
BOTTOM
Assemblies Sub-Assemblies
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
PCB
CABLE
CABLE
CABLE
CABLE
CABLE
CABLE
CABLE
CONGO SR

7. PROJECT MOTIVATION
Thursday, April 23, 20157
 Post in-sourcing difficulties:
 Extra shipping time and associated cost
 Language barriers
 Benchmark supply chain performance before and
after in-sourcing
 Identify opportunities for lead time and cost reduction
Defined a new performance metric to evaluate
supply chain performance
Improve Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT) :
•Create map of the entire supply chain
•Evaluate lead-time performance of the supply chain
•Capture system waste
•Improve on lead-time, improve on time to market

8. MCT MAP- USA OPERATIONS
Thursday, April 23, 20158
PCBs
CablesMCTTotal = 1249 days
*demand reduced as product matured

9. INSIGHTS FROM INITIAL MCTs
Thursday, April 23, 20159
EFFECT ON MCT
Inventory accounts for 94% of MCTTotal (82% MCTRaw , 12% MCTStock )
PCB and Cables account for more than 3x annual CONGO SR
demand
In-sourcing adds 28 days transportation lead time
Post in-sourcing distribution of FGI in London, Germany and USA
must change
EFFECT ON COST
Money tied up in high PCB and Cable inventory
Possible savings in FGI depending on FGI distribution in London,
Germany and US
*RMI levels are high to prepare for in-house assembly

10. PROJECT GOAL
Thursday, April 23, 201510
To benchmark the manufacturing critical path time of CONGO
SR and provide recommendations to target 50% reduction in
MCT leadtime, from the current MCTTotal of 1249 days.

11. PROJECT APPROACH
MCTOper.
MCTStock
Thursday, April 23, 201511
MCTRaw
• In-house inventory of PCBs
and cables
 Inventory level analysis
• Finish goods inventory
 Inventory Model
 Cost benefit evaluation

12. IN-HOUSE INVENTORY- PCBs & CABLES
Thursday, April 23, 201512
 PCB and cable inventory in Germany accounts for more than
85% of the MCT
 If PCBs and cables can be made in-house
 Shorter lead time (less than10 days versus 29/85 days)
 Better control over inventory (shorter lead time)
MCT REDUCTION!

13. DETERMINING OPTIMUM INVENTORY LEVEL
Thursday, April 23, 201513
Components of inventory:
COMPONENT OF INVENTORY PURPOSE
Safety stock Buffer against uncertainty
Production lot Satisfy regular demand
INPUT
Demand= 60 units/ yr.
Demand Variance
(sales data of 2008-’09)
Lead time= 10 days
Usage Quantity per
CONGO SR
SYSTEM
Calculating:
Production lot size
Safety stock level
Inventory days
(using Little’s Law)
OUTPUT
Production Lot size=
3 months’ demand
Safety stock
(Ex.5 units of B5601)
Inventory days
(Ex.73 days for
B5601)

14. Contributes to 87%
Total Reduction in
MCTTotal
Thursday, April 23, 201514
18% Additional
Reduction in
MCTTotal
IMPACT ON MCTTotal
MCTTotal = 271 days
MCTTotal = 222 days

15. IMPACTS OF RECOMMNEDATIONS- SUMMARY
Thursday, April 23, 201515
IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION SETTING FGI LEVELS
BEFORE AFTER BEFORE AFTER
MCT Raw 1028 days 73 days - -
MCT Operations 1 day 11 days - -
MCT Logistics 61 days 28 days - -
MCT Stock - - 152 days 104 days
MCT Total 1249 days 271 days 271 days 222 days
% reduction in MCT Total 78% 18%
% reduction in material
cost
11% -
% reduction in labor cost 7% -
% savings in unit cost 17% - 21% -
Inventory holding cost 94% 17%
Net reduction in MCT Total = 82% !
Net savings in unit cost = 17% to 21% !

16. IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE
Thursday, April 23, 201516
Activity Quarter 2 ‘10 Quarter 3 ‘10 Quarter 4 ‘10
Create Eng. Drawings and Mfg. Packages
Manufacture Prototype and make Pilot Runs
Write Additional Work Procedures
Phase in production of Cables based on
inventory levels
Phase in production of PCBs based on
inventory levels
Modify FGI across all Inventory sites

17. ACKNOWLEGMENTS
Thursday, April 23, 201517
 Alperen Ozalp – Manufacturing Engineer ETC
 Alex Stoltz – Manufacturing Engineering Manager ETC
 Professor Ananth Krishnamurthy – Director
 Debjit Roy, Ben Quirt – Project Assistants

18. QUESTIONS?
Thursday, April 23, 201518