Wire & Cable Industry trends

Diversification and Consolidation
With market share and profits under pressure, many cable manufacturers add complexity to the supply chain by expanding their customer base or product portfolio to deliver growth or acceptable levels of capacity utilization. Powerful IT solutions are now available to support these growth strategies and provide companies the necessary control and scalability.

Continuous improvement has become a necessity in the global competitive marketplace. LEAN initiatives are launched to provide, a systematic approach to understanding the value chain in a company. Sources of waste are identified and eliminated in a sequence of steps, and business processes are redesigned to create value rather than waste. The right IT solution supports this process of continuous change by providing the much needed agility. The proper use of IT enables the full utilization of employee potential.

Inventory of raw materials and (semi-) finished goods typically consume the biggest chunk of a cable manufacturer’s current assets. Inventory reduction is therefore often an important item on the agenda of company management. To manage and reduce inventories, companies must have better visibility and measurement of supply chain inventory. This requires an IT solution that fits the cable business like a glove and within which nothing can get lost or be unaccounted for.

Cable manufacturers can rebuild their power in the value chain by reaching out to the end customer of their products and, through an intimate understanding of end customer needs, developing products and services that create real value. This gives them a competitive advantage and a better negotiating position in the value chain. However, innovative and agile IT solutions are then required to support and respond to ever changing customer demands and to bring these demands deep into the supply chain of the company.

The cable industry, as a conversion industry, employs a lot of capital to generate moderate margins. Moreover, this capital is largely captured in commodities with highly volatile prices, like copper. Cable manufacturers must use IT to manage the risks of price changes - the right IT solutions for cable manufacturers give insight into the risks and provide tools to manage these risks.