【正文】 , Inc.: Collaborating on New Product Introduction GS66 p. 6outsourced model across a very large spectrum of products and geographies. That bination 20is an interesting thing.‖ In the early twentyfirst century, Cisco consolidated its base of contract manufacturers and suppliers. It cut the number of contract manufacturers from 13 to 4 major ones by late 2020. This enabled it to leverage spending while working more closely with them. In winnowing the field, Cisco examined numerous aspects of its contract manufacturers: capacity to build in large volumes in multiple locations, ability to support a broad range of Cisco products, as well as 21design knowledge and new product introduction capabilities. Similarly, Cisco sharply reduced the number of vendors in its extended supply work. In early 2020, Cisco had close to 1,500 suppliers and 80 percent of its spending went to about 200 of them. By late 2020, it had about 600 suppliers and 90 percent of spending was with just 95 of them. The changes made it less 22costly and simpler to manage suppliers and also resulted in major cost savings on ponents. Many of Cisco‘s manufacturing and supply chain improvements were made under its Manufacturing Excellence or ―MX‖ initiative, launched in 2020. The aim was to promote general excellence in manufacturing by emphasizing major ―aspirational‖ improvements rather 23than incremental changes, according to Mendez. In early 2020, the pany began shifting formally to a manufacturing model called Cisco Lean, intended to boost efficiency and flexibility. The lean process, developed with Cisco‘s contract 24manufacturers and suppliers, was pleted in mid2020. The goal was to convert Cisco and its extended supply chain to a system in which product was built only after a customer had actually ordered it. Explaining Cisco Lean, Mendez said: Traditional manufacturing operates utilizing a ?push‘ model. In other words, a pany builds product based on what it forecasts customer demand to be. With a push model, the extended supply chain including contract manufacturers and suppliers are dependent on the accuracy of forecasts, which can vary. Lean manufacturing is a ―pull‖ model, which means that product is not built until the customer has already placed the order. This is also known in the industry as ―just 25in time‖ manufacturing. The benefits of lean manufacturing included reduced inventory across the extended supply chain, more predictability in lead times and ontime shipment, and simplified processes, according to Mendez. 20st Neil Shister, ―The 21 Century Supply Chain: A Conversation with Cisco‘s Angel Mendez,‖ World Trade, March 2020, . 21 James Carbone, ―Supply Chain Manager of the Year: Steve Darendinger, Champion of Change,‖ Purchasing, September 21, 2020, . 22 Ibid., . 23 Ibid., . 24 Form 10K for fiscal 2020, op. cit., . 25 ―Improving Customers‘ Experience Through World Class Supply Chain Management Processes,‖ Qamp。 access working and services。 Curt Franklin, ―How Routers Work,‖ and Jeff Tyson, ―How LAN Switches Work,‖ and ―Router‖, (February 27, 2020). 8―2020 Annual Report,‖ op. cit., , (February 5, 2020). 9―Acquisition Summary,‖ Cisco Systems, Inc., February 19, 2020, _year/ (February 19, 2020). 10―Cisco Systems Corporate Timeline,‖ op. cit., (February 5, 2020). Purchased by Benjamin Tso () on February 20, 2020 Cisco Systems, Inc.: Collaborating on New Product Introduction GS66 p. 4squarely at the center of innovation and is capable of changing the way people work, live, play 11and learn,‖ he wrote to shareholders. Collaboration and Globalization 12By 2020, nearly a quarter century after its founding, Cisco operated in more than 120 countries 13and employed 61,535 people. The business was anized into more than 40 business units, defined roughly by product spaces, such as core routing, edge routing, access routing or wireless working. Business units belonged to a half dozen broader groups such as service provider。CASE: GS66 DATE: 06/05/09 CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.: COLLABORATING ON NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION On November 13, 2020, more than 100 employees of Cisco Systems, Inc. assembled in classic Cisco fashion: they dialed in from multiple locations around the world for an important meeting. The purpose of the gathering was to get the green light from senior management to manufacture a new highend router that would make the giant working pany more petitive in an 1age of surging Inter traffic. The project‘s code name, Viking, said it all. The router for broadband service providers would break ground in power and speed, reminiscent of the Norse warriors and explorers of Europe during the eighth to eleventh centuries. The meeting represented a culmination of several years of development work by a crossfunctional, global team of Cisco specialists in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and other areas. Just months earlier, in mid2020, Cisco overhauled the project by sharply boosting the router‘s speed and capacity. This would allow the pany to leapfrog petitors and offer a lowcost, powerful new router platform for the next 10 to 15 years. That day in November, the Viking team was seeking an ―execution mit‖ from senior management in manufacturing. If it got the goahead, Cisco would be ready to mit the resources to launch the new product. But the Cisco team knew it faced many challenges. The Viking project would be one of the pany‘s most plex new product introductions ever. First, even though the project had been essentially restarted in mid2020, Cisco was still aiming to announce the machine in November 2020. That would give it just a year to line up manufacturing, supply chain and marketing arrangements—an unusually accelerated schedule. Second, Cisco,