Brochure - Ross Video 2018

ROSS VIDEO: PROCUREMENT TRANSFORMATION

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CUSTOMER CENTRICITY IS KEY TO ROSS VIDEO’S PERFORMANCE TRANSFORMATION WRIT TEN BY

ANDRE W WOODS PRODUCED BY

ARRON R A MPLING

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Broadcast media company Ross Video has an extensive procurement department that delivers end-to-end services to a global client base… We speak to Bill Pulcine, Vice President of Supply Chain Management, to find out more 04

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he supply chain organization at live production equipment manufacturer Ross Video is

“laser-focused on meeting the needs of our customers”, according to Bill Pulcine, Vice President of Supply Chain Management. “I think the fact that we’ve grown about 500% over the last 12 years, and have been able to integrate other manufacturing facilities from around the world into Ross Video’s Canadian manufacturing location, is an exciting and compelling story.”

In the electronics world, it’s increasingly rare to find companies that do a substantial

Ross Video’s manufacturing facility in Iroquois, Ontario, Canada 05 amount of their own build. Subcontracting and offshoring have been constant trends in the electronics industry for the past two decades. Ross Video, however, bucks that trend. “The reason the Ross model still works so well,” says Pulcine, “is that we’re very high mix, low volume across a mixed model of manufacturing disciplines. Having our own shop allows us to be vertically integrated and also gives us the crucial ability to have direct control of quality.” Ross Video sells solutions in the broader sense and from a manufacturing angle offers a huge range of equipment to broadcasters, stadiums and arenas, as well as other vertical markets.

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NKK Switches (NKK) is a world leading designer and manufacturer of innovative electromechanical switches. By designing, producing and selling the industry’s most extensive selection of electromechanical switches, NKK sets the standard for quality, stability and reliability in switch solutions.

NKK provides comprehensive full-service solutions to include system design, programming and value-added support by combining over 65 years of expertise and a true commitment to our partners’ success.

SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY Ross Video started life in Montreal back in 1974 and soon after established a manufacturing base in Iroquois, Ontario, Canada. As the televisual and media landscape changed, Ross and its procurement space moved with it.

“It’s an interesting market. I think part of the reason we’re successful and have been able to have this dynamic manufacturing setup here is that we service a quite specific market,” says Pulcine. “It’s not consumer goods. Scale is a very popular term these days but it 08

is not always the biggest concern when you are making very high-value, application-specific products. We’re not selling a billion units, and what we do make is highly variable. Approximately 45% of our business is essentially driven by printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), and we manufacture roughly 300 different PCBAs. There’s also a large amount of mechanical assembly and server-based products where melting solder isn’t a significant element. In a recent 12-month period we shipped over 2,000 different products on over 7,400 different orders to over 3,500 different end users in 98 different countries. To put

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ROSS END-TO-END VIRTUAL PRODUCTIONS WORKFLOW DEMONSTRATION’ 09 that in perspective, Apple currently makes about 27 products,” he adds. “You can’t run a business like this without a skilled and dedicated team. We have a very experienced group here that knows and understands both the specifics of Ross Video’s business needs and the requirements and dynamics of the electronics manufacturing industry in a broader sense.”

There are three main categories of inputs that Ross Video procures. According to Pulcine, a lot of parts are built to a required

The Ross Video Supply Chain Management Team

specification or drawing. “Mechanical pieces such as those used in our robotics w w w.ro ssvi d eo. com

www.smithweb.com

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ounded in 1984, Smith sources, manages, and distributes the electronic components that go into everything from mobile phones and computers to appliances and directional drilling systems.

In 16 cities around the world, from Silicon Valley to Seoul, Smith’s legion of employees communicates in 50 different languages and dialects and buys and sells components 24 hours per day, with global annual sales exceeding $1.5 billion.

Smith is always moving: helping manufacturers navigate market shifts; customizing supply chain solutions; testing components using cutting-edge technology. With testing and logistics hubs in Houston, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam, Smith’s processes focus on critical issues, from quality management to counterfeit prevention and environmental safety. Smith’s operations, purchasing, and sales worldwide are seamlessly integrated with the company’s global IT infrastructure, offering real-time inventory and logistics visibility anywhere in the world.

Smith is the leading independent distributor of electronic components and ranks number eight among all global distributors. Smith’s Intelligent Distribution™ model adapts to ever-changing demands by providing reliable global electronics sourcing and logistics, regardless of distribution channel or locale.

products, or the bare-boards that are used in printed circuit board assembly, are our designs. We own them and there’s competition for our business from around the world. These items are built to print, and reflect the diversity of the finished products we sell. Once again, it’s high mix, low volume for these suppliers.”

On the other side of the coin, Pulcine and his team are buying other people’s designs, such as semiconductors and interconnect components. “We use the 12

famous names that people who know electronics would recognize; the same manufacturers are found in telecommunications products, computing and

Left to Right: Sandra Miller; Stockroom, Jamie Lake; Purchasing, Melanie Talia; Quality and Materials, Bill Pulcine, Deborah Dougherty; Export Compliance, Logistics, Order Entry, Order Management, Brad Somers, Master Scheduling/Planning

so on. In total, we are using over 5,000 different components from over 500 different manufacturers across our

electronic component manufacturers

current portfolio. These numbers have

who will sell direct to us, but they’re

doubled over the last six years as Ross

largely the exception. It’s a complex

Video’s product offerings have expanded.

ecosystem, really.” Ross Video uses

Most of the manufacturing suppliers

many distribution companies including

involved do not sell direct to compa-

NF Smith & Associates which operates

nies like Ross, but sell via a layer of

out of Houston. NF Smith deals in a

distribution. Ross uses a combination

massive line of electronic components.

of the largest international electronics

Smith has helped Ross Video keep

distributors and smaller niche players,

up to date with current component

where appropriate. There are some

price and demand trends in the supply

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chain and is one of several key

important part of procurement strategy

suppliers, they are especially strong in

and helps us secure parts ahead of

the embedded computing space. “They

shortages. Smith also runs inventory

send us a monthly market intelligence

management and logistics programs for

report with details on key component

us. These programs help us consolidate

outlooks, shortage situations, and

our warehouse and shipping needs. We

manufacturer news,� Pulcine explains.

use Smith as a central pull location for

“As a global independent distributor,

components which helps us increase

Smith obtains market conditions from

operational efficiency and ensures our

its vast network of direct and indirect

supply chain runs smoothly. We have

sourcing channels. This report is an

similar arrangements with other w w w.ro ssvi d eo. com

distributors. Smith is among the most

solutions derived from hundreds of

flexible to work with.”

individual cards from dozens of

Finally, Ross has a multitude of OEM

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companies. This cooperative effort

agreements in place. “Given the

gives users best of breed product and

diverse needs of our customer base, it

budget options, all while ensuring

doesn’t always make sense to design

common control and monitoring within

and build every element ourselves,”

the Ross DashBoard ecosystem.

says Pulcine. Ross has taken the OEM

Pulcine elaborates; “This means that

model a step further with its Emmy®

openGear partner companies can

award winning openGear® platform,

design and sell products (PCBA’s) that

part of the Infrastructure product line.

work in the Ross openGear frame. This

openGear is the industry standard

is unique. Competitors in this vertical

platform of choice for modular signal

typically deliver solutions that are

processing equipment. As the world’s

exclusive to their products. You can’t

first modular platform open to other

put anyone else’s product in their frame.

manufacturers, openGear provides

The Ross openGear solution gives the

An Acuity A3M switcher, part of Ross’ flagship Acuity line, features switches that Ross helped develop with NKK

customer a lot more choice and allows the platform to evolve rapidly”.

Ross works closely with other companies to develop the elements required to realize its product vision.

CEO David Ross has worked extensively with NKK to develop componentry for Ross products. “NKK is a Japanese firm that develops control switches – the human interface into our flagship product line of production switchers.

That’s a good partnership because we don’t own that design. We don’t own that technology. We’re not capable of making these switches – nor do we want to be – but we worked very closely with the manufacturer to develop the

“ It’s an interesting market. I think part of the reason we’re successful and have been able to have this dynamic manufacturing setup here is that we service a somewhat limited market”

— Bill Pulcine, Vice President of Supply Chain Management, Ross Video LTD

product that meets our needs.”

As technology evolves, so does the company’s procurement strategy. “If

make the supply chain better on all

we’re using company X’s semiconduc-

fronts. Sometimes that means intro-

tors, and then company Y comes out

ducing new competitive elements to

with a better one, and we’re in a design

the situation. You might be reasonably

cycle where we can pick up the better

happy with your supplier or suppliers,

one, we’re going to do it. It doesn’t

but that shouldn’t stop you from

mean that you end the relationship and

pushing to see how the situation might

never go back, because a lot of these

be improved. That may mean looking at

technology companies leapfrog each

competitors. We certainly value our

other. Their positions might change

suppliers and give them every opportu-

every six months to a year. There’s

nity to compete and maintain their

certainly a balancing act in trying to

business, but not in a laissez-faire way. w w w.ro ssvi d eo. com

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ROSS XPRESSION REAL-TIME MOTION GRAPHICS OVERVIEW’ 16 We need to do this to be competitive and to drive value for our customers.”

GROWTH THROUGH ACQUISITION Ross Video has experienced rapid growth through the strategic acquisition of other companies and this directly affects the procurement function. “We have never acquired a company that was more than 10% our size,” Pulcine explains. “That said, we have made many strategic acquisitions that really changed Ross. We quickly went from two product lines to twelve. Buying up these other companies has expanded our ecosys-

tem. It’s still live production but not always the same customer base and often different verticals in that market.” According to the acquisition philosophy of CEO David Ross, the incoming products need to “touch the edges of the current product lines”.

For a long time, Ross Video was known as a production switcher company before it then expanded into another part of broadcasting known as ‘infrastructure’. Together these two lines defined Ross Video in the

The XPression hardware that enables Ross’ graphics solutions

market for many years. Subsequently, the company became very big in character generators – the software that enables graphics to appear on screen during live broadcasts – following the acquisition of a startup. “You might be watching a sporting event and one of the players makes a big play.

A graphic will then appear in the corner with his headshot and some statistics about how they’ve been doing, such as ‘Averaging 0.78 goals per game this season’. Well, that

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graphic has to be called up by an

or augmented reality elements

operator. The format of it will be

to broadcasts and help make programs

pre-canned, so to speak, but it’s

more visually interesting and compel-

produced on the fly in a live situation.

ling. Nine years after entering the

We have some very sophisticated

market Ross is now arguably number

software that allows you to create and

one in broadcast graphics.�

change the look of on-screen graphics

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in real-time, and add very sophisticated

A SHIFT IN STRATEGY

animations and effects. Taking this

That acquisition brought a whole

concept further, we can also add virtual

different manufacturing and supply

chain challenge to Ross Video’s

acquisition was key to sparking a major

traditional PCBA-based work as it

spurt of growth in the company.”

began manufacturing servers specifi-

Soon afterwards, Ross bought

cally engineered for the broadcast

another two companies that manufac-

market. “We buy commercially avail-

tured products related to its Infrastruc-

able, high-end motherboards, CPUs

ture product line. “They weren’t so much

and disc drives, and assemble them

competitors as complements to our

to make a custom-built application

existing product lines, and this again

specific server that is uniquely a Ross

expanded our reach. One company

product. The XPression graphics

was manufacturing video routers in

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Australia. The other company was manufacturing products mainly focused on embedding data into broadcast transmissions and was based in Ottawa. Again, the acquisitions touched on the edges of the pre-existing products and we added routing and data insertion to our range of solutions.”

Another product range Ross wanted to offer its customers was camera robotic systems. Robots are used in broadcasting to allow one person to control multiple cameras, as opposed to having an operator at every camera. “You can create more sophisticated and visually interesting camera moves with a 20

robot, so it’s an attractive solution for content producers. We acquired two robotics companies; one in Belgium, which was a small but fast-growing business, and one in California, which was a little more

Robotic products, such as the Furio pictured here, drove another significant expansion of Ross’ product line and underlying supply chain

C OMPA N Y FA C T S

• Ross Video provided the equipment, including Vision Production Switchers and SoftMetal Video servers, that were used extensively by the host broadcaster at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

established and had a longer track record.”

This foray into camera robotics brought its own challenges to the supply chain team. “As you can well imagine, the supply chain to build a robot is completely different to the supply chain for building a server or making printed circuit boards. The challenges in the internal manufacturing processes are also completely different, as they were when we moved into embedded computing. Robots introduced a significant mechanical engineering challenge to the Ross team and, again, the capabilities of the supply chain organization had to morph to include a different supply base. As you can tell, all of these things are still related to live broadcast, so it’s still the same customer base.”

“We concentrate on quality, service and cost, which is not a revolutionary approach. Lifecycle management is extremely important, because of the heavy investment Ross chooses to make in R&D in order to stay at the forefront of our market. Significant product improvements require significant change management and new product introduction. New product w w w.ro ssvi d eo. com

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introduction is much smoother when third parties such as subcontractors are not part of the equation. Inventory has a reputation of being evil, but the fact of the matter is that inventory is either what you make or what you bought to be able to make what you make. If there’s hardware in your product, inventory is what you sell – so why is it considered to be so evil? Inventory allows us to be responsive to our customers’ needs.

We have the best lead times in the industry and this is a definite competitive advantage.

Inventory only becomes evil when it loses its ability to turn into revenue. Our customers 22

need us to support them for typically ten to twenty years. You don’t make substantial purchase decisions without the expectation of long-term support. This adds another significant layer of complexity to supply chain management.”

GLOBAL PRESENCE AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN “Our presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America has increased dramatically. Over the last decade, we have moved from selling less than 20% of our solutions to these markets to now selling 50% to countries outside North America.

When we talk about supply chain here, we think of it as an end-to-end fulfilment entity, not just procurement. Yes, Ross Video’s

“ Over the last decade, we have moved from selling less than 20% of our solutions to these markets to now selling 50% to countries outside North America” — Bill Pulcine, Vice President of Supply Chain Management, Ross Video LTD

C OMPA N Y FA C T S

• Ross Video Provides the switchers that are used by top music acts, including The Police, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Blink 182 and Rush, to run video for concerts when they’re on tour

supply chain team buys the parts, but we also manage the inventory, plan the shop build schedule, and coordinate configuration activities with the shop floor. We work closely with R&D, Sales and Marketing to manage product lifecycle. We take customers’ orders and provide them with acknowledgement of the order and a promise of delivery. We work in concert with the customer to handle the logistics of getting the goods to the end destination. It’s quite complex when you have thousands of different inputs into thousands of different outputs, sold to thousands of end users in almost every country in the world.”

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8 John Street P.O. Box 220 Iroquois, ON Canada, K0E 1K0 T + 1 (613) 652-4886 www.rossvideo.com