The client recognised that the increasing advanced technology being used in SMART Remote Controls for TV Set Top Boxes for the major European TV Operators was driving two key changes:

1) The SMART remote (Voice, Touch, Movement control) was becoming a critical and integral part for the customer viewing experience.

2) The embedded technology was driving the unit cost up and to a point where it no longer became a disposable item.

The task in hand was to understand the end to end manufacturing process to see how the Remote Controls could be re-used, or as I termed it, Re-manufactured. There were three key tasks to perform

1) The SMART Remote Controls manufacturer did not perform such a service in the EMEA region and therefore no Supplier relationships existed.

2) If the manufacturer was to perform the Re-manufacturing of the remotes, rather the end customers’ existing Repair vendor network, what was the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) going to be?

3) In addition to the USP, what were the Commercial and Circular & Sustainability advantages?

1) A full and global E2E (End to End) process review was performed: Design, to Engineering, to Procurement, to Manufacture to Sales Marketing to Cross regional capability.

2) Extensive interview process with key global CXO level decision makers and stake holders: Buy-in was essential as was Issue & Challenge analysis

3) End customer stake holder meetings and discussions held to ensure they were part of the process and had buy-in, and that they were able to articulate what their decision tipping point would be (and these were different depending on the end customer).

4) Full EMEA Supplier Strategy created to enable vendor partnership development for Re-Manufacturing

5) Design and execution of RFQ (Request for Quotation) exercise across the European region with eight vendors, including multi-phase RFQ capability assessments, vendor site visits and commercial assessments. Also included an in-house Mexico based solution

6) Full P&L development for proposed single and multi-site vendors

7) Analysis of manufacturer own re-manufacturing process versus the existing and competitor Repair vendor landscape to develop USP

8) Commercial model development to enable cost advantage versus existing Repair vendor base

9) Zero landfill and circular assessment of Remanufacture vendors to meet and exceed end customer requirements; be a leader.

1) Re-manufacture vendor qualified, approved and available to project plan & ramp.

2) Multiple commercial solutions to save between 10% to 20% for Re-manufacturing versus New buy to the end Customer and to drive greater than new margin for the manufacturer

3) Value proposition for Sales outlining clear USP’s for a Re-Manufacturing solution versus Repair or New buy solution

4) A Circular approach to re-use plastics (and make them better for recycling going forward), avoid landfill and meet & exceed the end customer’s sustainability requirements.