"SOIL" 97th Forum: Digital Planning Solutions for Enterprises

On October 21st, 2020, “SOIL" Forum was honored to have Mr. Zhang Yan, Operations Director of Jabil Circuit (Shanghai) Ltd. with CLGO students to demystify digital operations in enterprises. Zhang has worked in Motorola for 13 years, and was appointed Operations Director of Jabil Circuit (Shanghai) Ltd in 2010. Since then, Zhang has vigorously developed the company, accumulated rich experience and gained unique insights from its lean management and digital transformation.

Also present at the Forum was Prof. Wang Hongbin, Founder of AAASCM and Professor for MBA courses "Supply Chain Planning (SCP) and "Procurement Management" at ACEM of SJTU.

The buzzword "digital transformation" is what many enterprises are crushing on without necessarily knowing why it's necessary. Among all factors involved, two factors have played an outstanding, direct and effective role in driving Jabil's digital transformation over the years.

First, multifarious customer orders. Jabil hosts numerous customers each year with a great variety of orders from their respective companies. Mr. Zhang Yan explained with examples cited from 3 sectors: telecommunications, electric appliances and healthcare, that as traditional operations fail to cope with customer orders with different preferences, different requirements and ultra-high complexity, digital means becomes the only way out for Jabil to meet customer needs and convince them of areas for optimization in their requirements with accurate quantitative analysis.

Second, rigorous regulation by agencies such as FDA. Jabil boasts a large number of FDA-approved products, but it also portends heavy fines, harsh punishment and strong public criticisms in case of any violation as any slightest move is closely monitored by FDA. Only digital means can input all relevant product information that gets institutionalized within the system for compliant operations at Jabil.

"Good" in, "Good" out

Good input is what determines a company's success in digital transformation. As "rubbish in, rubbish out" always makes sense in the business community, good data input is the top priority for modeling and optimization. Any slightest data error in modeling and optimization of supply chain may lead to a huge difference in forecasts. For input accuracy, Jabil carefully sorts out the data and calibrates the model in light of actual business conditions, iterates the digital system in time when changes occur, and makes complete text records of the problems or experience in the process. All these efforts contribute to an accurate and efficient digital system at Jabil.

Standardization vs Initiative

Mobilization of talents also determine a company's success in digital transformation. IT managers at Jabil do not need to give play to their talents or initiatives from nowhere. Instead, a model basis enables them to continuously optimize and iterate. This whole process must be formalized for new employees to learn in an instant. That's why only a few IT managers are adequate to maintain operations and constant upgrading of the system.

Besides, Jabil also gives full play to employees' initiatives where appropriate, as employees must be fully mobilized for solutions amidst challenges from new business changes or some unknown problems, hence maintaining long-term vitality for digitization.