Supply planning and production continuity

Electronics production rarely stops because of the machines. It stops because one capacitor is missing, because the boards will arrive a week later, or because nobody noticed that a popular chip now has a 20-week lead time. At Convel, supply planning is part of the manufacturing service, not an add-on. We use an ERP system and planning tools that combine your orders, component and board stock levels and the capacity of our lines into a single schedule. You focus on developing and selling your product, we make sure there is always something to assemble on the shop floor.

How we plan production around your orders

• A forecast instead of a surprise. For recurring production we agree planned volumes with the customer several months ahead. Thanks to that we order long lead time components early, rather than when the order arrives.
• Risk analysis of the BOM. We split every bill of materials into items available off the shelf, items with long lead times and items that need an alternative. Risky parts are covered by stock or by an alternative approved by the customer.
• Safety stock. For key components and boards stored at Convel we keep an agreed buffer that lets us start the next series without waiting for deliveries.
• One schedule. The date you get in the order confirmation accounts for component deliveries, board availability and the load on our lines. We do not quote a date for assembly, we quote a date for finished devices.

What you see

The status of orders, deliveries and component stock is held in our ERP, and you receive reports from it at an agreed rhythm: what is in the warehouse, what is on its way, how many series it covers. When a distributor pushes back a delivery, you hear about it from us together with a proposed solution, not from a late shipment.

Supply continuity in practice

The last few years have taught the industry that component availability is not given once and for all. That is why we work with several distributors at once, monitor manufacturers’ end-of-life notices and, in every longer cooperation, propose approved alternatives for items that may disappear. More about purchasing the parts themselves on the electronic components page.

Who this matters to most

To companies that sell devices continuously and cannot tell their customers “delivery in two months, because a part ran out”. Fleet monitoring systems, gas detectors, controllers for automation, medical devices: here a break in production is not only a cost, it is also a loss of trust. For customers like these, supply planning matters as much as the quality of the SMD assembly.

Frequently asked questions about supply planning