Software company WebConcepts, Inc. has been serving retailers and
their movie studio DVD suppliers since the late 1990s with vendor-managed inventory (VMI) solutions.

The City of Industry, CA-based company, which has become a platinum sponsor of the Consumer Electronics Supply Chain Academy (CESCA),recently expanded its supply chain management software vendor solutions to the consumer electronics industry with two new accounts: Motorola and videogame software/hardware distributor Ditan.

WCI founder/chairman Ray Young, a leading supply chain management
software executive, will discuss demand-driven retail planning and replenishment at CESCA Jan. 11 at 11:45 a.m.

"Premier consumer electronics companies have made their mark through
excellence in innovative technology, product development, and marketing," Young said. "Driving this record of success to the next level requires comparable excellence in managing performance at retail. The key is precision management across the entire product life cycle."

Requirements for high performance retail management, according to Young, include proper demand planning and allocation of product introductions, dynamic and continuous replenishment during the critical early stages of product life cycle and proper inventory transition to clear the way for the next wave of new products.

Achieving these performance milestones requires superior demand management and replenishment at the retail locations' shelves, he added. "Financial return on retail real-estate has been the measure of success for the retailers and it's becoming the measure of success in retail for CE companies today," Young said.

For the Motorola assignment, WCI competed with established supply chain solutions providers already serving the consumer electronics industry. Besides cellphones, Motorola manufactures and distributes to retail a wide range of accessories, such as headsets and batteries, all requiring supply chain management. Young marvels the fast pace of the category's life cycle. "They come out with new phones every two months. Creating the product is not good enough," he said, adding that the need to manage shorter life cycles efficiently is crucial to success.