Component Dynamics is showing how independent distributors can guide their customers in tricky times.
It’s well-established that the Covid component crisis forced the electronics manufacturers to rethink how they managed their supply chains.
The lesser-told story, however, is how it also reoriented distributors, pushing them to reposition their linecards and services to adapt to the changing market.
Those lessons were not lost on Component Dynamics, an independent supplier focused on supplying high-quality electronic component solutions for obsolete and hard-to-find parts. But while the company might scour the globe on behalf of a customer in need of a handful of tantalum capacitors, it also provides valuable market intel, boosting those firms’ predictive capabilities.
From Shenzhen to Southeast Asia: The changing map of PCB production.
Accurately investigating the revenues of the world’s largest PCB fabricators is confounding: Each year is filled with mergers and acquisitions, and no public records exist for a number of fabricators because they are either privately owned or part of large corporations which do not disclose the revenues of their PCB operations. As years go by, more “estimates” creep in. As a result, the author’s confidence in the data diminishes each year. Nevertheless, the NTI-100 continues to reflect the status of the global PCB industry; its size and market trends can be deduced from the fabricators listed.
For clarification, while ranked lists often refer to the 100 largest, in this case, “100” refers to companies with printed circuit board manufacturing revenues over $100 million. A record 159 companies reached that mark in 2024, versus 134 companies in 2023.
SMTAI Women’s Leadership Program highlights how technology shifts lead to greater opportunities for those with specialized skills.
The need to develop new technologies to meet the demands of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly urgent. The manufacturing of the necessary hardware at scale presents its own set of significant challenges, however, including highly skilled labor, specialized equipment requirements, automating complex tasks, supply chain disruptions and quality control issues. Given these manufacturing challenges, applying the principles of design for excellence (DfX) from the beginning of the design process is essential.
An incomplete picture can “mask” significant issues.
Measurement system analysis (MSA) evaluates the overall capability of a measurement system. Measurement capability serves as a foundational element for ensuring product quality, as reliable measurements are essential for maintaining consistency and meeting specifications. Before any measurement system can operate in production, a thorough evaluation determines its capability. This assessment ensures the system provides accurate and precise measurements, laying the groundwork for robust quality control practices.