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About a year ago, Sony Corporation initiated a massive corporate restructuring after announcing its first annual loss in more than 14 years. Sony had a significant profitability crisis which specifically involved its consumer electronics and games businesses and Chairmen and CEO Howard Stringer was forced to take direct operational control of all operating businesses.
In May of 2009, Supply Chain Matters provided a commentary, Sony’s Supply Chain Challenges, in which we noted that the restructuring would involve aggressive cost reduction goals for Sony’s supply chain. Taking on a challenge to reduce overall material costs by 20% in two years has proven to be challenging for companies in profitable times, let alone in crisis situations. I noted that Sony would have no choice but to move quickly, given the economic and industry conditions that were occurring in the consumer electronics sector.
The corporate restructuring included a combined manufacturing, logistics, and procurement organization led by a longtime Sony executive, Yutaka Nakagawa. At the time, various reports indicated that the company would close three plants in Japan by the end of December 2009, and the number of plants around the world would be reduced to 49 from 57. Other efforts noted were that the company would also slash material costs by 20% ($5.3 billion USD), and cut total suppliers to 1200 from the current 2500 by March of 2011.
In a rather sudden and dramatic turnaround of events, last week Sony announced that it has actually turned a profit in its latest fiscal quarter and will narrow its previous full-year loss projections. A Wall Street Journal article notes (paid subscription may be required) that in the area of supply chain, Sony has already cut costs by $3.63 billion USD. That is indeed rather aggressive in such a short period of time. The article further notes that Sony has closed 20% of its manufacturing plants and now eliminated 20,000 jobs, 4000 in excess of last year’s target. In the area of material costs, the WSJ article makes note that Sony has targeted a 15% cost reduction for the PlayStation 3 by March 2011. Currently the company loses six cents for every dollar of PS3 hardware sales.
Upon reading the executive briefing transcript published on Seeking Alpha, there is management acknowledgement that the bulk of the supply chain cost reductions thus far were achieved mainly from top-down senior management directives specifically targeting headcount and excessive inventory levels. Payment terms to suppliers have apparently been extended although it’s difficult to decipher from the transcript. There is also an acknowledgement that no business processes or systems changes have occurred thus far.
The picture for Sony in its first year of crisis has the appearance of top-down, slash and burn cost cutting. While these efforts did result in the required significant take out of cost, the real work related to supply chain process transformation still remains a work-in-process for Sony. This next phase will be more significant in terms of making the right moves to insure that Sony’s supply chain capabilities can sustain both continued efficiency and adaptability to changing business conditions. I trust that Sony’s supply chain teams will utilize more advanced analytical methods in navigating this next phase since we all know that cost cutting alone does not bring the ability to innovate for customer fulfillment needs.
Supply Chain Matters will continue to monitor and provide ongoing commentary.
