IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries® announced today the April findings from its monthly North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program. Year-on-year sales growth was up slightly in April and the book-to-bill ratio remained positive at 1.01. Sales and Orders Slow but Improving Total North American PCB shipments increased 1.6 percent in April 2014 from…
Manufacturers in China are expected to spend, on average, $34 million on components in 2014, according to a new report by Global Sources and eMedia Asia. That figure represents an increase of 26 percent over 2013 purchases, and more of that spend is going through the distribution channel. By all accounts, the use of the channel…
My company’s 30th anniversary in business has given me cause to look back and think about lessons learned. We’ve all been through the industry’s ups and downs over the past 30 years; growth and crisis have shaped us and how we manage our supply chains and the volatility of our industry. While much has…
London, England — According to analysis by Semicast Research, Continental and Robert Bosch maintained their positions as the dominant suppliers of automotive under-the-hood ECU electronics in 2013, considerably ahead of third placed Denso. Collectively these three suppliers are estimated to account for half of the automotive under-the-hood ECU electronics market. Semicast defines automotive under-the-hood ECU…
Mentor, Ohio — Qualtek Electronics, a leading electronics manufacturer of fan and fan accessories, AC receptacles, heat shrink products, power cords and cordsets, power supplies and EMI power line filters, has launched a redesign of their website to provide visitors with more information, faster browsing, easier site navigation and compatibility with smart phones and tablets. The…
Thanks to two major acquisitions in the past two years, Visual Communications Company, LCC (VCC) is now positioned as one of the broadest product line manufacturers of indicators, expanding its product portfolio beyond LED technologies to include neon and incandescent lamps. The company acquired the indication and illumination product lines from Chicago Miniature Lighting and…
Some businesses call it refurbishing, others call it remanufacturing. It’s the process of restoring worn products to almost new, and it represents a significant market opportunity for the supply chain, according to the APICS Foundation. Remanufacturing is an area of growing interest for supply chain and operations management professionals, the foundation says. Previously segmented to specific areas…
OMRON Corporation (TOKYO: 6645, ADR: OMRNY) announced on May 29 its new medium-term business plan for the three years from FY2014 to FY2016. In 2011, OMRON launched its long-term business strategy for the decade leading up to 2020, called “Value Generation 2020” or “VG2020.” With this strategy, OMRON has specified goals; “global value-creating group that is qualitatively…
According to a recent report by Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for information about the telecommunications and networking industries, the Layer 2-3 Ethernet Switch market declined nearly $1 Billion sequentially in the first quarter 2014 to just over $5 Billion. “Several factors caused 1Q14 to deliver the second worst first quarter on record for the Ethernet Switch market,”…
Meg Whitman says Hewlett-Packard Co. must be “maniacally focused” to win in a changing market that is “creating both opportunities and challenges for HP and every one of our competitors.” Her choice of word is unfortunate but emblematic of what many corporate executives have adopted as the right strategy for making their businesses competitive. Whitman,…