Xiamen, China, October 20, 2022 - Milesight, a fast-growing AIoT solutions provider, has completed a province-wide IAQ school project in Canada. For being able to deliver 47,000 IAQ sensors to public schools across Quebec in an efficient and timely manner, the supply chain played a key role in every step towards success. So, we spoke to Simon YANG, Milesight's Director of Supply Chain, about how Milesight overcame supply chain bottlenecks.
We keep hearing upsetting news about global chip shortage. And the fabrication was worsened by global pandemic. Under extreme pressure, Milesight was on schedule and get all products ready for schools in Canada. How did your team work to manage all the schedules move smoothly?
I believe Milesight has weathered this storm well through years of dedication, passion and evolving practices. Though the number of this IAQ project, 47,000 IAQ sensors and 2,600 gateways to be exact, was challenging for us, we had firm belief to make impossible possible even in most severe times.
We have a very strong team in our supply chain. Over the years in industry, we have developed strategic relationships with over hundreds of suppliers. Besides, thanks to the company merger with our sister companies in 2020, we have backup and are able to take multi-sourcing procurement strategy. So, in fact, Milesight took the hit in a relatively good way and our business could keep running based on same standers in not only supply chain, but also operations, customer services, engineering, manufacturing and more.
What’s more, our supply chain management is resilient enough because of our own production center, occupying over 8,000m2. Every month, the capacity of production center can support around 20,000 - 25,000 units with defect rate lower than 0.7%. Every component is processed in high standard workshop. Every product is strictly inspected through a series of test, such as High/Low Temperature Aging Test, Vibration Test, and Drop Test. The cautious inspection of every link ensures the quality and the safe arrival of each product.
With global factory slump where many factories cannot get enough product out to the market with enough quantity, as the IAQ project shows, this does not seem to be the case with Milesight. Are there any stories on production center that you like to share with us?
I think it's fairer to say that we minimize the adverse effects as much as possible. To cope with global issues, even though our production center is qualified and professional enough to meet all our demands, delivering a large number of devices in limited time do require us to make adjustments.
For this IAQ projects, our factory was running full steam, reaching 212.5% increase in monthly capacity. Accordingly, the number of staff grow rapidly and now we have a pretty large production team. Also, production lines worked in a more effective way. We formed and carried out SOP which standardized and automated the operation.
But all these are not accomplished overnight. Our capability on supply chain grows and expends alone with company. Back to 2011 when Milesight was founded, we produced our first generation of IP camera products. And after a few years of hard-working, in 2017, Milesight IoT was born with the first generation of programmable industrial cellular routers. Then in the following years, Milesight created LoRaWAN gateways, sensors, controllers and many more.
We understood that Milesight is distributing all over the world. And when it comes to business, I believe it may vary from project to project in terms of product requirements. From the perspective of manufacturing, how does Milesight handle all this?
It is important to become more agile, especially under uncertainty. Take this IAQ project in Canada as an example. From product structure design to packaging, the devices were custom-made specially in accordance with project requirements. We made arrangement of resources ahead of schedules and align with other relevant departments effectively. Plus, our supply chain team has a strong leverage on suppliers so as to meet customers’ expectations.
The last piece is that early bird catches the worm. As you know, technology-driven is always at the core of Milesight. Around 15% of our revenue would invest into it and nearly 50% of our employees are from R&D teams who conduct researches and studies to pinpoint what is trending in the industry. So, on the one side, Milesight can identify and propose the right products before users know what they want. On the other side, most of the management personnel in the production center have rich experience in the research and development of the products. They know what and how to handle and avoid issues before it is too late. All together this made us to prepare ourselves well in advance for potential customers.
As of today, we are so proud to offer best-in-class products to customers over 120 countries and regions. And we are delighted that through our efforts over the years, we have grounded numbers of projects for various application scenarios. With these experiences, I hope to bring more reliable supports to every business. Milesight is the company they can always relied on.
Learn More Details about this IAQ Project in Canada >>
Read IAQ Insights EP01: Using Technology to Shake off Troubles for Project Success >>
Read IAQ Insights EP02: Products Extend String of Favors Among Global Customers >>
About Milesight IoT
Milesight IoT is a fast-growing and innovation-driven technology company with a focus on 5G, AI, IoT and LoRaWAN®. With advanced IoT insights, the company helps customers worldwide optimize their business operation efficiently and sustainably in an actionable and locally adapted way. Along Milesight has been a long-term trusted partner for a massively growing IoT businesses since 2011. In collaboration with global partners, Milesight IoT is committed to building open ecosystems that generate inspirations and embrace challenges together and better. Learn more about Milesight.
