Webinar Recap – Supply Chain for Engineers: An Engineer to Engineer Talk

Thank you to all who participated in our last webinar! We hope you enjoyed the presentation. If you missed out or couldn’t attend the session, read the event highlights, slides and a link of the recorded presentation below.

 

What you’ll see

  • The Rundown: Topics discussed and video recording
  • Featured Speakers
  • Feedback Survey
  • Live Q&A Responses

The Rundown

Discussion Points
  • Crash Course: Supply Chain
  • Market Watch: What Happened?
  • Design Tips

The embedded component manufacturing world is unpredictable due to natural disasters, pandemic disruption and technology demands. That’s why PHYTEC wanted to share the tips, insights and steps we’re taking to reduce the impact of these challenges.

We focused on connecting hardware, software, mechanical and embedded-system designers with Supply Chain experts and shared what PHYTEC engineers have gleaned and applied to our product designs.

Recorded Video

Feedback Survey

If you attended the event PHYTEC would appreciate your feedback by answering this 7 question survey. This survey communicates your preferences with our PHYTEC Marketing Team.

Live Q&A

At the end of the presentation we had a 15 minute Q&A. Here is a recap of those questions, and their answers.

Will there be a e-certification for this event?

Christyan Brown’s response: We don’t have a certificate, but we will be sending out an email after the webinar thanking you for joining us and giving you the slides from the webinar as well as the questions and answers. For anyone who needs anything else for a university class, please send us a follow up email and we will do our best to get you anything you need for your classes.

When I go online to look for a part how do I know what’s a good choice? If there is a lot of stock is that bad and mean its not in demand?

Aljosha Simon’s response: The opposite, if there is a high stock at a distribution channel it more likely means, that there is a high demand and the channels are trying to have it on stock all times to make the be able to sell from stock to not miss an opportunity to miss revenue.

How much time does your hardware team spend on component issues?

Christyan Brown’s response: It depends. In a normal year we may have 1 or 2 of these issues pop up. In the current situation, about half of my time during the week is spent on.

If it takes years to make chips how is the supply set? Is this just forecasting? How do I submit my forecast?

Christyan Brown’s response: Forecasting. As simple as its sounds – the more information about your future demand you have the better and basically some information is better than none. So just communicate what you have and work that though out your supply chain.

What is something that makes you happy has a Supply Chain Manager when you see a BOM?

Aljosha Simon’s response: When I was able to work on the BOM from early on to really make sure all components are up to date and procurable.

When do you think things will clear up and stabilize?

Aljosha Simon’s response: I hope that we see the market relax a bit by end of 2022/early 2023 but until we are back to ‘normal’ its probably rather late 202x’s or maybe this is the new normal now. Considering that the demand only increases rather than decreases, Fabs are very hard to set-up as it takes up to 2 years to have everything up and running and we might be in a very long catch-up mote until the late 20th.

About how many hours are spent working, ensuring that everything runs smoothly?

Aljosha Simon’s response: This is from Nicole Macias, one of our hardware layout engineers here at PHYTEC America. We have been working together remotely and only meeting on zoom due to the pandemic. We actually met in person for the first time on the ferry a couple weeks ago. She came up to me and ask, “Do you sleep?” , which I responded with a honest, “No”. With the current component shortage, I spend a great deal of time ensuring that our customers are going to receive the product they have been promised. Meaning I’ve been spending more of my time in meetings with manufacturers CEOs and traveling to various locations in order to get answers from our sources.

What is a “BoM”?

Aljosha Simon’s response: BoM = Bill of Material. This is the list of components/parts that make up your product.

When will semiconductor supply catch up with demand?

Aljosha Simon’s response: We will be pretty much in catch-up mode the whole year of 2022 and we will hopefully be back to normal at some point in 2023 but unfortunately nobody will know that until it really happens. Also be aware, that once a crises ends, there will be a new one just around the corner.

How do you handle component End of Life (EOL) for your product?

Christyan Brown’s response: It depends on the EOL notice we receive from the manufacturer. Sometimes the manufacturer will include a device number that they are producing that will act as a drop in replacement for the EOL part .Other times a replacement won’t be specified, but purchasing will either get a recommendation from the manufacturer, or they will have another part available that they are suggesting. Finally, if there is no recommendation from the manufacturer or from purchasing, as the hardware engineer, I get to go out and find parts that I think may be able to fit the need. For whatever part you select, you will still need to use that second source checklist to confirm that the part will work for your product before approving them.

Ready to get started?

Let’s go. Get in touch with PHYTEC today.