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Standardization in the payment card industry, on the material level, brings multiple benefits to a company. By reducing complexity, it increases the efficiency in the whole value chain process.  Standardization supports a synchronized supply chain, centralized material procurement, lean manufacturing production system and a global quality system.

Dr. Ing Milena Niedernhuber, product management director at G+D and a member of the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), shares the top ways to manage global challenges in the payment card industry through standardization.

Strengthen Resilience to Crises

The pandemic has shown how interlocked and fragile the global supply chain is.

Looking back at the last three years, the industry observed several disruptions such as:

• Shortage of key materials
• Lockdowns
• Delays in delivery
• Increasing costs

Additionally, strong regional dependency for key components and geopolitical issues led to stress for many companies.

To withstand the global challenges, it’s crucial for a company to strengthen its resilience to crises. In particular, this means avoidance of dependency in any direction, a robust multi-sourcing concept and a flexible production network.

 Introduce Differences in Properties Late in the Process

The diverse dual-interface technologies on one side, plus the high variety on the material level on the other side lead to enormous complexity. In order to get control over this, complex differences in material properties should be introduced as late as possible into the process.

Standardize Processes

Standardizing the bill of material (BoM) and the production process of volume products increases companies’ efficiency. It also gives room to work on new creative ideas and innovative products.

Remain Efficient and Responsible

The current global challenges require efficient and responsible usage of materials and recourses. Additionally, a global standardization concept with local partners helps to decrease the environmental impact.

It’s never been more critical to standardize than now. Material standardization always starts with analysis of the current portfolio. These analyses reveal the diversity and show the potential for variant reduction. The next step is to perform qualitative and quantitative total cost of ownership evaluation and based on that to define a global standard.