Inflation Spirals in the High-Tech Supply Chain
When judging the cost of electronics, it’s about more than the price of an individual part
ECIAauthorized Expands to Non-Association Members
For the past six months, the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) has been in a state of flux. For the procurement community, that became evident though changes to ECIAauthorized, the association’s inventory-aggregation site. In October, some of ECIA’s biggest members – global distributors Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Inc. and Electrocomponents plc—left the trade association to…
How to Minimize Coronavirus Supply Chain Disruption
The 2011 tsunami in Japan was one of the forces behind the electronics supply chain’s dedication to resilience – the ability to shift all or part of a supply chain as needed. That means people, materials, manufacturing lines, suppliers and even physical processing and aid centers. Global businesses now have entire departments dedicated to business…
Reduce Payment Cycles Through Automating Accounts Receivable
Few businesses can be considered non-profit organizations. At its most basic, the electronics business is about being paid. Companies that don’t get paid don’t stay around too long and late payments can hinder an organization’s business operations. The accounts receivable (AR) process revolves around the invoice – pulling it together internally, sending it out to…
Tariffs Raise ‘Red Flag’ on Component Supply Risks
Electronics executives and industry experts are all over the map regarding the impact of U.S. and China tariffs on component supplies, OCMs, distributors and their customers. One thing is crystal clear – tariffs, or “taxes,” in one form or another are going to be passed on to buyers. Research and investment firm Morgan Stanley projects…
Electronics OEMs Barely Get Passing Grade for Sustainability
The average grade of 17 leading consumer electronics companies evaluated by Greenpeace USA on sustainable manufacturing and design of IT products was a D+. Fairphone ranked the best overall with a B, followed by Apple with a B-, and Dell and HP both with a C+. The remaining manufacturers including Samsung, Huawei and Amazon scored…
Survey: Execs Not Happy With Digital Supply Chains
The interdependency of the electronics supply chain may be hampering companies’ efforts toward digital transformation, research finds. While 75 percent of executives in the manufacturing and retail supply chains say a digital strategy is very important for their business, only five percent are satisfied with progress so far. There are two levels of digital transformation occurring among…
Big Data, the Supply Chain, and Deja Vu
There’s a phenomenon that’s been discussed a lot in recent weeks that goes something like this: In spite of incontrovertible evidence that a statement or fact is true, people disregard the evidence and hold fast to their original but incorrect belief. (It’s one way that researchers are explaining the current U.S. presidential election.) We’ve also…
Freight Companies Join the Digital Revolution
“Artificial intelligence” usually conjures up images of humanoid robots, but AI is one of several digital technologies that are being applied to the supply chain. With the digital revolution in full swing, companies across the electronics supply chain are harnessing data to improve efficiencies and cut costs. In the logistics segment, for example, freight companies…
Why Barcode Labeling Matters in Electronics, Part 2
The ubiquitous labels that accompany electronics shipments are more complicated than most people imagine. Barcodes on these labels are packed with standard information such as the manufacturer of the product and part number. However, many parties along the supply chain – raw materials suppliers, component manufacturers, distributors, sub assemblers and end-customers—want unique information in barcodes…