02/12/2020
Tesla: Electronics Supply Chain Novice or Savior?
Electric vehicle (EV) start-up Tesla has disrupted the electronics supply chain, but not in the way the industry expected.
02/12/2020
Can Millennials Cope With a Component Shortage?
As Baby Boomers make way for Millennials in the high-tech workforce, a new generation gap is yawning. The population reared in the digital age is engaging with colleagues whose golden rule is face-to-face communication. The current electronics market will test the skills of both generations.
02/12/2020
Can Millennials Cope With a Component Shortage?
As Baby Boomers make way for Millennials in the high-tech workforce, a new generation gap is yawning. The population reared in the digital age is engaging with colleagues whose golden rule is face-to-face communication. The current electronics market will test the skills of both generations.
12/04/2020
Harnessing Useful Information from a Deluge of Data
There is no shortage of data within the electronics supply chain. Suppliers, distributors and customers share forecasts, inventory data, order status and compliance information; they transact business in multiple languages and currencies; they monitor their partners and external inputs for potential disruptions and they keep abreast of their competitors.
12/04/2020
Distributors Provide Safe Passage for Exported Goods
The channel tackles trade compliance complexities for both suppliers and customers
12/04/2020
Court Ruling Unlikely to Stall Conflict Minerals Compliance
A recent ruling by a U.S. appeals court is unlikely to suspend the electronics industry’s compliance efforts toward the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, also known as the “conflict
12/04/2020
The High Cost of Compliance: A RoHS Retrospective
The regulatory environment for the electronics industry continues to become more complex
12/04/2020
What’s in a Name? In the Channel, Everything
The electronics distribution industry is undergoing an identity crisis of sorts. “Catalog” no longer accurately describes small-volume online distributors; “non-authorized” and “blended” have replaced “independent”; and “authorized” has supplanted “franchised” in the channel’s lexicon.
12/03/2020
Poorly Managed Excess Inventory Poses Threat to Supply Chain
A long-standing challenge in the electronics supply chain is the management of so-called ‘excess’ inventory. When an OEM or EMS provider orders too much product, it is often sold in the open market to distributors that are not franchised by component suppliers. The problems this creates for the authorized channel include the taint of counterfeit components in the electronics supply chain. Authorization—or franchises—are designed to protect suppliers, distributors and customers. From the customer standpoint, procuring product from an authorized distributor is similar to acquiring it directly from the supplier in terms of brand, quality and performance.
12/03/2020
When Demand Creation Programs Work, Everybody Wins
The global electronics supply chain is by its very nature a complicated business. Certain aspects of the relationship between suppliers, distributors and their customers only add to the complexity. But when a system works the way it’s supposed to, everybody wins.
12/02/2020
Compensation Issues Challenge Demand Creation Programs
Few individuals will work without the expectation of pay; yet a parallel to this scene plays out in the supply chain every day. The allocation – and cost − of resources attached to demand creation programs is spurring some frank conversation between distributors and their suppliers.
