To get this stalled industry going again, service providers should take a page from the automotive industry. Among leading auto manufacturers, efficiency rules. One reason: Companies such as Nissan deploy systems that precisely inventory and monitor the myriad parts that go into a vehicle.
Last year at its Sunderland, U.K., plant, Nissan implemented software that accounts for all possible manufacturing constraints, including the availability of parts from a vast web of suppliers. The system allows three car models to be produced on two assembly lines, and has increased overall production by 30 percent. Telcos don't have a grip on what network assets are deployed where -- or what capacity is available to them. Essential information about network resources is spread across different departments and databases, in the heads of a specialized few or even in old three-ring binders.
Just provisioning DSL, a 12-step process in most instances, can take days or weeks as provisioners -- like craftsmen -- labor over diverse resources to find the piece-parts for each hand-built circuit.
The logical extension of inventory management is to do it "just in time" -- precisely matching supply with demand to eliminate carryover costs. Toyota achieves "just-in-time" by monitoring the flow of supplies and timing their arrival at the factory to assure only the parts needed are the parts on hand. Carryover costs in telecom can be equated to stranded assets, deployed network resources that appear to be in service, but in fact are not. RHK estimates 20 percent to 30 percent of a carrier's network is stranded at any given time.
New software applications can integrate the just in time concept into the OSS by constantly reconciling network inventory models with the live network. Monitoring all network devices and constantly communicating with element managers and auto-discovery tools enables the OSS to update network data and assure no asset is left behind.
With an inventory at the heart of the OSS, and just-in-time control of economical sequencing, telcos can begin to integrate automation into their product assembly.
It works for automakers. Every 21Ž2 minutes Mercedes' assembly line in Alabama sends an electronic signal to an offsite supplier telling it what color dash panel to build next.
Carriers are beginning to recognize automation's value. BT Wholesale recently adopted inventory-driven automation in its OSS, enabling the carrier to manage service deployment across its U.K. voice and data networks. BT Wholesale anticipates lower operational costs, faster service delivery and increased product margins.
With profits top of mind, and more efficient use of networks the only way to achieve them, service providers would do well to emulate the operational successes of auto manufacturers.
Can a telco think and operate like a manufacturer? Raw network capacity may not be tangible like steel, plastic or rubber, but keeping track of it, automating the processes used to shape it and optimizing its use are critical to cranking up the value of the network, and putting telecom on the road to recovery.
Don Gibson is CTO at Cramer Systems Ltd. He can be reached at don.gibson@cramer.com.
