Recent global events, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to unexpected weather calamities, disrupted supply chains made sourcing high-reliability parts challenging. Here’s how the right partner can help.
As the global electronics supply chain continues to increase in complexity, organizations are more vulnerable to risk events. By strategically sourcing and proactively planning supply, OEMs can keep the supply chain up and running — and continue to get the end product into the hands of end customers.
Proactive protection
As the past year proved, global events have the potential to ripple across the world in ways that impact the supply chain at every level. The lesson is clear: managing risk is a key part of a strong procurement strategy, especially for organizations sourcing high-reliability parts. Instead of allowing an event to trigger a supply chain assessment, it’s important to consider possible events and plan ahead. That’s the key difference between a dangerous reactive strategy and a successful proactive strategy.
A reactive approach is both more costly and less effective than proactivity. Often, prior planning leads to opportunities to eliminate waste and drive down costs. The right partner can help.
Make good choices
When sourcing high-reliability parts, choose a strategic supply chain partner. By working with a strong partner, OEMs can gain valuable insights into market trends of shortages, obsolescence, or high-reliability parts surpluses in order to make informed procurement decisions. Other things to look for: a global network of facilities, scalable supply chain solutions, end-to-end product lifecycle management, and obsolescence and lifecycle extension support.
The right partner can demonstrate:
- Relationships with reliable and known sourcing allies to ensure that the desired components can be brought into the supply chain.
- Clearly articulated and rigorous quality procedures in place to ensure that delivered parts will perform to the specifications of a high-reliability application. A seasoned partner will have trained and certified employees and leverage state-of-the-art testing equipment.
- Certifications in industry-accepted standards such as SAE’s AS6081 and AS9120 (for aerospace, aviation and defense) to ensure parts traceability and identify reliable sources. These standards were developed in response to increased numbers of fraudulent and counterfeit parts being introduced into the supply chain.
To summarize: Sourcing high-reliability parts is a big job in the best of times but in the wake of global events a strong partnership with a distribution partner is more critical than ever.
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