Blink and 20 years of monumental change flies by
As Electronics Sourcing celebrates 20 years of publishing, I’m having a trip down memory lane, reflecting on how the electronic component distribution industry has evolved and indulging in a little future gazing to boot. Two decades ago, component distribution was often a transactional, ‘feature and price’ business. I visited plenty of distributors comprising little more than a bank of telephones taking orders, boxes of components and a dispatch room. By comparison, today’s distributors are a critical element of a global supply chain, providing components, technical expertise, design support, logistics solutions, inventory management and more. The past 20 years have brought…
Date code dilemma
Date codes are interesting. In my opinion every manufactured object should have a manufacturing date. Pinning parts in ‘time and space’ is useful on many levels. Having restored plenty of classic vehicles over the years, a date stamp was a vital attribute when conducting a forensic search for an elusive component. However, once a product is date stamped at manufacture, a clock starts running regarding sell-by, best before, use-by, replace-by etc. Most consumers’ interaction with date codes will relate to food and drink, for good reason. Eating rancid food can lead to some significant issues. One downside is…
Communicate demand early
In the March issue of Electronics Sourcing UK & Ireland, ECIA has written a fascinating article exploring the difference between component lead time versus cycle time. What it highlights in detail is the time it takes to actually manufacture a semiconductor device and how the part’s complexity impacts that timescale. I hazard a guess that not all electronics purchasing professionals will have an in depth understanding of semiconductor fabrication, packaging and test processes, including the time taken for each step. I certainly don’t. However, having read this article, I now have a lens through which I can appreciate the number…
Two months until data gold
Electronics Sourcing North America is just two issues away from supply chain data gold in the form of the extensive, annual Top 50 Report. Everyone is asking me what the results will be but I refuse to comment. More broadly, I have spent the last two months sifting through generic market data from all corners of the globe so I have a rough idea of what to expect. However, rather than speculate on the Report, I choose to await its arrival. What I will do is explore one key process impacting electronics supply in 2025 which will certainly inform the…
AI, driven from the top
Starting page 21 of January’s issue, Edgewater Research Company’s Dennis Reed walks readers through the latest market research, including sector analysis across compute, automotive and industrial. As I expected, the research includes many references to artificial intelligence with one section saying: ‘We are forecasting outperformance in memory and logic, projecting plus 25 per cent and 10 per cent growth respectively driven by continued AI buildouts’. When I discuss the long term expectations of AI with friends, family, industry and academia, the range of opinions is unfathomably wide. At one end of the scale, some are worried about swarms of…
Both certain and uncertain about the future
So, I’ve read all the Executive Forecasts and read them again. Using my newfound knowledge, if I had to compare the electronics industry in 2025 with an internal combustion engine it would be a performance V8 with ‘artificial intelligence powered’ super charger, yet it would also be misfiring on a cylinder and suffering from an annoying intermittent fault. All in all, the industry is poised for significant activity but hamstrung by uncertainty caused by variables beyond any company’s direct control. Strangely, I simultaneously feel both certain and uncertain about the future. I have complete confidence that human ingenuity and resulting innovation will…
