Molex Drives Intelligent Supply Chain Collaboration with SAP Solutions

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Molex, a global electronics leader and connectivity innovator, announced a highly successful collaboration with SAP to unite a global community of suppliers and buyers as part of Molex's multi-year, intelligent digital supply chain transformation strategy. As the crucial conduit that connects the company's back-end ERP system to external trading partners worldwide, SAP Business Network played an instrumental role in helping Molex digitize transactions and interactions with 900 suppliers worldwide.

As a leading developer and supplier of innovative connectivity products found in automotive, connected healthcare, consumer electronics, data centers, industrial automation and other demanding applications, Molex buys more than 70,000 parts and components annually. Over time, the company's legacy supplier portal proved insufficient for ensuring the delivery of timely, accurate information about purchase orders, inventory, quality defects and invoices.

Greater transparency about purchase orders and real-time visibility into inventory levels was essential to mitigating business risks quickly and decisively when confronted with unplanned supply-chain disruptions. With SAP Business Network, Molex closed the loop from purchase orders to invoices by removing barriers and complexities that impacted communications with direct material suppliers.

"We've moved more than $1 billion across SAP Business Network within 18 months of deployment," says Tony Gainsford, director, Supply Chain, Molex. "We absolutely did not expect to get to this point so quickly, but a great team and effort brought it all together. Now, suppliers are on time, we are on time, and we deliver to our customers on time, empowering them to run production lines on schedule and meet their commitments."

Intelligent Collaboration: A Better Way to Connect, Transact and Partner

With seamless digital connections between buyers and suppliers on SAP Business Network, Molex and its suppliers now readily confirm part and component quantities and delivery schedules. These real-time insights facilitate accurate "clear to build" directives, which spur operations and customer service to move forward with production timelines.

Now, more than 90% of all purchase orders are confirmed through SAP Business Network while the average turnaround time to complete confirmations has been slashed by a third. The number and frequency of PO confirmation changes also has been reduced dramatically. Close collaboration with suppliers via SAP Business Network has facilitated a series of ongoing enhancements, including a recently completed pilot on scheduling agreements.

Molex and SAP are continuing to finetune supplier interactions through elevated user experiences. The organizations co-innovated a purchase order reconfirmation process that synchronizes changes, which is vital in a high-tech supply chain.

"Together with Molex, we are co-innovating on solutions that solve real supply chain management challenges and propel the industry forward at an even faster pace," said Val Blatt, chief revenue officer, SAP Business Network. "With SAP, Molex has realized significant improvements in supplier order confirmation rates and advance ship notice adherence. The company is also achieving tangible business value from increased consignment inventory, better resource productivity and improved on-time delivery."