Charcroft’s director, Debbie Rowland, explains how distributors provide a vital link between component manufacturers and customers, safeguarding against obsolescence.
Distribution must be the supply chain link which helps customers manage obsolescence. As the link between component manufacturers and customers, distribution must support OEMs and CEMs to handle the changing dynamic of component obsolescence and extended lead times.
It is vital for distributors to continually monitor the industry to identify risks of obsolescence and provide solutions to mitigate each risk.
Currently, more new components are being released while previous components are being phased out and into obsolescence. For customers, this can mean a component’s price can rise when only the new version is available, even though the design is costed for the earlier component.
Availability of raw materials also plays a part. Faced with potential shortages of a raw material, a distributor should provide the component manufacturer with detailed forecasts of customer usage—sometimes up to several years—so sufficient raw materials can be secured. This is important for mission-critical systems where the service life is measured in decades.
Component manufacturers are beginning to rationalise their component ranges, not always offering all options or variants previously available. As component manufacturers have fewer lines to manage, shorter lead times are easier to achieve. So, while this approach may be reversed over time, it can affect availability of some component variants.
Acquisitions can be disruptive, as data may not be carried over accurately through the acquisition process. This is a risk, particularly when the component has been manufactured to a customer’s drawing and may even have a customer-specific part number with special testing.
Developing critical components differs from the development of standard catalogue components. When designed and manufactured to an exact customer specification, a component’s capabilities can be stretched to the maximum. Continuity of these components must be ensured to support the extended lifetime of the system in which they are used.
Tight collaboration with the distributor can help customers fully understand which components are classed as critical in each design. Components classed as critical may not always be those which have the highest value. So, the process must be based on expert component knowledge, plus that of the customer, market sector and wider industry.
By being efficient and proactive, a distributor can ease the issues experienced by a customer. Speed is vital and it is essential to offer a solution which can save valuable time for engineers to specify a replacement component.