Bench Talk

Buyers and purchasing agents for companies want choices, control, and convenience to be big players in the supply chain. Distributors offer that edge.

One big advantage for an engineer buying via a distributor: You don't have to navigate to dozens of manufacturers’ websites. A distributor's website offers a comprehensive selection of parts in stock or available for order.

The tragedy that befell Southwest Flight 1380 in April 2018 is thankfully a rare event in modern air travel. Digital twining is a promising new technological concept that could soon help the transportation industry hone safety measures.

The AS6496 standard was published in August and Mouser now has an Anti-Counterfeit Control Plan written specifically to that standard.

Last week I had a prime tell us they preferred to buy a part through an independent rather than directly from Mouser, an authorized distributor. I’ve been told this is for the convenience of the prime. They want to keep their suppler base low and they don’t have an account with Mouser. So they add an extra link to the chain by having the independent buy it from us and then the independent turns around and brokers it to the prime.

I was on a standards writing committee call two weeks ago discussing part traceability with customers on the committee. I wanted them to accept this requirement in the standard “c. Maintain inventory control of received parts sufficient to have positive traceability as to the supplier of the parts. Parts from different suppliers will not be comingled.” The thinking here is that by having this traceability, customers will know whose product is giving them problems. I was amazed by the response.

AS6496, the SAE standard for Authorized Distribution, has gone out for ballot. This new standard will enhance authorized distribution and give customers a clearer picture on Authorized Distributors.

I have been involved in counterfeit mitigation since early 2009. I’ve had hundreds of interesting conversations with peers and industry experts. Yesterday it dawned on me what was happening to the commercial off the shelf (COTS) market for parts. Defense contractors and the DOD are trying hard to make the COTS industry conform to QPL or military conformance. Whether it is a conscious effort or not, is yet to be seen. The problem is the COTS industry has not done this in the past and now has problems complying. It’s not that the COTS industry doesn’t want to do it, it’s just the infrastructure and specific records required don’t exist.

Welcome to my blog. Here I intend to present information relevant to our customers and Mouser Electronics. I recently got an interesting question from a customer who asked, “How do you certify the parts as conforming and meeting specifications?”