OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

Supply Chain Strategy for PCB Designer

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Electronic parts shortages coupled with inflation has been affecting the electronic industry globally. Chris Cain our guest for today’s episode is a supply chain consultant and former VP at Keysight working on supply chain and supply chain products.

Chris will share with us his 37 years of experience and strategies to overcome electronic part shortages.

Watch this episode here

Show Higlights:

  • Chris Cain briefly describes what supply management is, and his role as a consultant.
  • Chris explains what it means to tap into the “scale for the larger ecosystem” of electronic providers
    • Find alternatives and make some design adjustments where is possible
  • Look for parts that are very scalable like memory parts and FPGAs
  • Modular approach or designing for modules may also allow designers to have some flexibility
  • If you can't get the parts, you can't ship your working design–having an insight into what’s coming in the supply chain could help designers in their decision making
    • It pays to spend a little time keeping up with groups like IPC which does the groundwork of looking up the industry and what they think is coming
  • Chris warns designers about silk-screened sand, he added “never pay, until you verify”
  • Moving towards an open source model, Zach mentioned a recent article on All About Circuits which talks about companies transitioning their chip architectures to RISC-V to help them overcome some of these supply chain issues
  • What is supply chain resilience?
    • Fuel costs push up the cost of everything else it's related to and it's essentially an inflation driver
  • Avoid buying three year supply of parts, it’s smarter to focus on design flexibility and overall sourcing flexibility
  • What are the challenges involved with raw materials supplies for assembly?
  • The dark scenarios, the dark side, the disaster scenarios

    • Links and Resources:

    Connect with Christopher Cain on LinkedIn

    Watch a related Podcast episode: The Benefits of Diversifying PCB Industry Supply Chain
    Read Chris Cain’s Latest Article: Maximum Usage to Improve Supply Chain Resiliency

    Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

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