Where have all the products gone?
The production of electronic components is a capital-intensive venture. Likewise, the industry is also fast-moving, with new product introductions and obsolescence notices a daily, if not hourly, occurrence. Thus, until supply chain AI reaches critical mass, the industry will always be plagued by ‘cycles’ of supply and demand mismatch. In fact, if the cycles are sinusoidal, the amount of time supply and demand are perfectly matched is infinitesimally small. Naturally, the sector has designed solutions to smooth the waveform, from forward bookings and stock holding to allocation and price flexing. However, every component group (if not every individual component) has its…
Megatrend unravelling?
The process of taking a new electronic product to market can be split into two distinct halves: pre and post design. The former is the domain of the research, design and development teams. The latter rests with purchasing, manufacturing and supply chain. In many application environments, a project’s time spent in design might be measured in weeks and months. However, move to manufacturing/ supply chain and the project’s time horizon becomes years and decades. Thus, as the editor of a supply chain magazine, I must be interested in mega trends given how far they stretch into the future. One mega…
Finger on the pulse
Publishing and communications technology might change over time but the fundamentals of making a magazine remain the same: understand the information wants and needs of your audience; keep asking questions until you find sufficient answers; then broadcast your findings to people who will find them interesting and useful. Clearly it is important to ask the right people the right questions, which means being in the right place at the right time. Admittedly, this process has been eased by the introduction of technologies like Zoom and Teams which have shrunk the world and leapfrogged time-zones. Alongside this, humble press releases continue…
Artificial intelligence, where next?
‘Intelligence’ is defined as: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. In turn, ‘knowledge’ is defined as; facts, information and skills acquired through experience or education and skill is defined as; the ability to do something well. Continuing, a ‘fact’ is described as; a thing that is known or proved to be true, while ‘information’ is described as; facts provided or learned about something. If the above was written as a mathematical equation and then simplified, intelligence is surely; truth applied well. Let’s expand the equation to include the meaning of ‘artificial’ as; made or produced by human…
Wake up, shake up
In March this year, for the first time in approximately 40-years, I started running. Given the sedentary nature of being a magazine editor—hours spent at a desk each day—it began as a life extension tactic but has now evolved into a wonderful pastime that I share with family and friends. On the surface, the positive benefits are what anyone would expect: weight loss, improved heart and lung capacity, muscle tone etc. However, nine months in, I’ve realized there is much more going on under the surface. According to my research, every time my foot hits the ground a…
Emotion yields ground to data
My life story has been riding the economic sine wave that is the electronics design and manufacturing industry. When a crisis hits, newscasters roll out the standard response that businesses demand predictability. In reality, it depends what business you are in. If the world was predictable I imagine the insurance sector would shrink. In the manufacturing arena, companies want the upside of unpredictability when surprising a competitor with a new product, while also seeking out predictability in their supply chains. Four-years ago there was no supply chain. Three-years ago scarcity drove prices sky high. Two-years ago everyone was searching for…