Panasonic Enhances Mobile Solutions Business Division withBlue Yonder Luminate Planning

OSAKA and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Nov. 11, 2020 – Panasonic Corporation and Blue Yonder announced today that Panasonic’s Mobile Solutions Business Division (MSBD) has implemented several Blue Yonder Luminate^™ Planning solutions focusing on sales & operations planning. Gradual operation of these supply chain solutions began in October with full operation planned for December 2020.

Part of Panasonic’s Connected Solutions Company, MSBD manufactures and sells the “Lets note” brand of notebook PCs for enterprise users in Japan, and the TOUGHBOOK brand of rugged mobile computers which are sold around the world. The company has the No.1 shares of both the domestic and global notebook PC markets^*1 by providing customized products to enterprise users with high quality and close customer service. However, providing a wide range of customizable models resulted in long lead times and difficulty in calculating available to promise (ATP).

With Blue Yonder’s Luminate Planning solutions, MSBD expects to shorten lead times for product deliveries to enterprise customers, expedite ATP time and reduce inventory disposal losses. Through this, Panasonic aims to further increase its customer satisfaction levels^*2 and strengthen its competitiveness.

MSBD will also realize increased accuracy of its global supply chain operations, which previously had relied on labor-intensive coordination of planning management systems that differed by region.

To accomplish this, Blue Yonder met with Panasonic to assess the state of operations, analyze the issues, and understand the business vision and direction. From this collaboration, they identified the three key areas of focus for this project: supply chain efficiency, agility and automation.

“From the initial assessment all the way to implementation, at each step Blue Yonder’s global team worked closely in unison with us,” stated Hiroaki Sakamoto, director of Panasonic’s Mobile Solutions Business Division. “Their deep understanding of our frontline operations and strong consultation drove the success of this project. More than just a software vendor, Blue Yonder was an invaluable partner in realizing our global supply chain process innovation.”

With Blue Yonder, MSBD anticipates it will heighten production planning accuracy, reduce global delivery lead times, simplify the planning process and realize 10% reduction of inventory disposal loss compared to FY2018 levels. In addition, MSBD will be able to provide even greater customer satisfaction and strengthen its competitiveness.

“By implementing our Luminate Planning solutions, MSBD is on track to meet three key objectives: enhance customer satisfaction, reduce inventory and disposal losses, and increase sales by thoroughly meeting order promises,” said Wayne Usie, executive vice president, Market Development, Blue Yonder. “Panasonic has not only been a customer and partner, they also became an investor into our company as well. We are looking forward to continuing to support Panasonic and MSBD as they further automate their supply chain to meet the needs of their business and customers.”

Going forward, MSBD is also looking into deploying additional Blue Yonder Luminate^™ Platform solutions to further enhance and automate its supply chain management through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analysis.

Strategic Partnership

In May of 2020, Panasonic announced that it would make a strategic equity investment (20%) into Blue Yonder — further expanding upon the partnership the two companies have built including a joint venture company in Japan — to help accelerate the realization of the Autonomous Supply Chain^™.

“First we wanted to transform our own supply chain management by implementing Blue Yonder’s solutions,” stated Yasu Higuchi, Representative Director of Panasonic Corporation and CEO of Panasonic’s Connected Solutions Company. “We’ve started with the Mobile Solutions Business Division, and plan to expand out to other business divisions; allowing us to accelerate the process of transforming into a company on the cutting-edge of supply chain management. By using our own transformation as a case study, we will then offer these solutions to customers in Japan.”

Blue Yonder and Panasonic will combine resources and work closely with partner companies in Japan to fuel growth by selling Blue Yonder’s Luminate solutions and bringing forth new, jointly-developed solutions on the Blue Yonder Luminate Platform that enhance customers’ capabilities for supply and demand forecasting, inventory and labor optimization, and streamlining business operations.

“Blue Yonder” is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name “Blue Yonder” is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc.

• 1. 16 consecutive years No.1 share of business mobile PC market in Japan (Source: IDC Japan, Japan Personal Computing　Quarterly Model Analysis　2020Q2 Share By Company, for PC smaller than 13inch, excluding ultra slim models)
  18 consecutive years No.1 share of global rugged mobile PC market (Source: VDC Quarterly Tracker, 2020Q2）
• 2. Panasonic ranked No.1 in NIKKEI COMPUTER’s customer satisfaction survey in Japan in the 2020-2021 notebook PC category (August 24, 2020)

*On February 11th, 2020, JDA Software announced company name change to Blue Yonder