The global coronavirus has upended many of the metrics used to forecast supply, demand, economic activity and financial stability. Two electronics associations – the IPC and ECIA – report electronics markets are recovering, but forward momentum is decelerating. “The economy improved over the last month, but it is clear that momentum is slowing and future…
The Newark electronics catalog – once known as the “Bible of the industry” — has made significant progress under parent Avnet Inc. and expects additional investment will boost its e-commerce capabilities and restore historically high profit margins. Newark was acquired in 1996 by the UK’s Premier Farnell group. The Newark and Farnell catalogs underwent a…
Disasters have a way of elevating procurement operations to saviors of the day, week or month. But once a crisis has passed, purchasing reverts back to its identity as a corporate cost center. Covid-19 could strengthen purchasing’s position as a corporate risk-management resource. The pandemic has raised the supply chain to a topic of national…
Machine learning (ML) is positioned to solve a range of supply chain challenges today, but commercializing ML applications lags behind research. Businesses that stand to gain from ML solutions are helping accelerate that process. Last week, MIT’s Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) research alliance launched, via webinar, MachineLearningApplications@CSAIL to develop applications for the latest…
There aren’t may start-ups in electronics distribution, and even fewer that specialize in end-of-life (EOL) components. Flip Electronics has just celebrated its fifth year focusing on the “bleeding edge” of technology. Flip manages EOL parts for component suppliers and customers. “I’d say five years is proof of concept,” said Jason Murphy, Flip’s founder and CEO.…
U.S. factory activity in August expanded at its fastest rate since 2018, driven by a surge in demand and shrinking levels of customer inventory. The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI rose 1.8 percent to 56 percent in August, compared with 54.2 percent in July. This is the third month of manufacturing expansion since April’s contraction,…
Two weeks into his tenure as interim Avnet Inc. CEO, Phil Gallagher is crystal clear on his growth plan for the $18 billion global distributor. “We will be absolutely focused on our core strategy — technology distribution — and driving home our value to suppliers and customers right out of the gate,” he said. It’s…
In spite of Covid-19 case numbers rising in the U.S., optimism in the electronics and manufacturing industries is improving. ECIA’s latest supply chain survey on the impact of the virus points to lessening concern over component supply. Additionally, the U.S. manufacturing index has increased for 3 consecutive months. Developments over the past month on Main…
Customers of electronics component distributor Digi-Key, which specializes in design and engineering orders, have told the business over the years they’d like to buy more products from Digi-Key. The company has responded. The distributor most recently launched the Digi-Key Marketplace, which significantly expands its product scope into automation and control, IoT, test and measurement, bare…
5G remains the electronics industry’s best hope to kickstart a global economy that’s been decimated by Covid-19. Although network rollout is far from uniform across the globe, supply analysts are beginning to form a picture of what the 5G supply chain will look like. As of March, 5G was live in 24 markets globally, according…