Mitsubishi Electric Corp. To Invest $163 Million In Online Supply Chain

Compiled ByDeborah Austin Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plans investment of $163 million over the next 18 months, implementing a global Internet-based supply-chain infrastructure for its Semiconductor Group. This would provide Mitsubishi and its semiconductor customers a collaborative online planning, production, and delivery fulfillment environment linked to Mitsubishi Electric's 10 global manufacturing plants. The firm could deliver responses to customers' demand forecasts within 48 hours; commit delivery dates to customer orders within 24 hours; ship semiconductor products from any Mitsubishi production or regional inventory site within 48 hours of available-to-promise commitment; give customers real-time views into order management/production status; and ultimately create server-to-server links between itself and customer systems. Tokyo-based $35.6 billion Mitsubishi says the system should reduce administrative costs by 50% -- and inventory warehousing/transportation costs by 30%.