Plexus Corp. (PLXS), said Impinj, a leading provider of RAIN RFID (radio-frequency identification) solutions that deliver Item Intelligence(TM), recognized Plexus as their 2014 Partner of the Year. The award acknowledges Plexus for providing exceptional quality, on-time delivery, and collaborative engineering services for a new product introduction during 2014 that required quick-turn development of a complicated…
In his role as president of Arrow Electronics Inc.’s Americas components business, Alan Bird is responsible for all customer and supplier relationships, sales and the management of employees. During his 25 years in the electronics industry he has seen tremendous change, including the growth of outsourcing to China and other parts of Asia; economic recessions; the…
In the context of the supply chain, the term “fraud” could mean many things: intentional financial errors; misrepresented inventory levels or outright fake products. More than one quarter (28.9 percent) of supply chain professionals polled by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services said their organizations experienced supply chain fraud, waste or abuse during the past 12 months.…
Flextronics International Ltd. said it has been selected to manufacture self-powered tracker controllers for NEXTracker Inc., a producer of horizontal tracking equipment used for solar projects, efficient power conversion (EPC) facilities and other energy systems. NEXTracker’s products are used in clean technology programs across several continents and the company operates offices in Asia, Europe and…
A turf war between electronics components distributors and contract manufacturers shouldn’t surprise anyone. The two groups operate razor-thin margin businesses and while they offer critical services neither is truly at the top of the electronics industry food chain. To further complicate matters, OEMs can (and sometimes do) reap major benefits from pitching distributors against electronics…
Jabil Circuit Inc. said it has agreed to produce reference designs based on Intel Corp. intellectual property for “intelligent vending” manufacturers as semiconductor companies continue to push deeper into OEM design chains. The move enables Jabil to continue its focus on diversifying its services to include a wider segment of the manufacturing economy. Intelligent vending…
Flextronics International Ltd. said it will pay $494 million for Mirror Controls International to broaden its offerings and services to automotive manufacturers. The acquisition of the supplier of mirror actuators to the automotive industry will further help Flextronics smoothen sales growth and reduce its dependence on markets susceptible to wild demand swings, according to company…
I’m about to contradict myself. I’ll admit this upfront just in case you’ve read my article titled Even Electronics Design is now a Commodity. I’m going to stand by the article, though, but I’d also like to present the contrarian view that the commoditization of the electronics design chain should be celebrated and not panned…
Celestica Inc. (NYSE, TSX: CLS), a global leader in the delivery of end-to-end product lifecycle solutions, announced that it has received the 2014 Supplier of the Year Award from Juniper Networks. The award was presented at Juniper Networks’ recent Supplier Summit in Sunnyvale, California. The 2014 Supplier of the Year Award recognizes Celestica for its…
Discussions regarding counterfeit electronics components almost inevitably come around to finger-pointing: if a bogus part enters the supply chain it is distribution’s fault; or independent distribution’s; or the buyer’s; or a situation that require buyers to go outside the authorized channel; or COTS programs; or an EMS. Original component manufacturers (OCMs) and OEMs are rarely involved in…