Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1047182
NOVEMBER 2018 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 27 shortage of key components from a lead-time and life-cycle standpoint. So, questions of longer lead time and sourcing components for their products, and it's understanding those lead times. We're also seeing a lot of obsolete components, which, when a customer designs their new product, their design engineers like to use certain components within the BOM and in some cases are unaware of the avail- ability and life-cycle of these components. We provide a BOM health analysis service which works alongside their engineer team in helping to identify key components within their BOM. We'll take a proactive approach to their design and use our risk management analysis tools and component engineer's expertise to provide an immediate risk assessment on specific BOM's as needed. What really cool about this, our system tool forecasts component obsoles- cence and conduct's a risk analysis on the entire BOM using advanced algorithms designed specifically to manage component lifecycles. This tool also allows for finding immediate potential cross references that match form, fit and function to their components if and or when required. Goldman: Of the difficult components to get, which ones are most difficult? Actives or passives, would you say? I've heard that the passive components are the most difficult to get right now. They're the ones that have the longest lead times. Reilly: Yes, we're seeing a lot from manufactur- ers from a lead-time standpoint on passives. Also, we work very closely with our compo- nent suppliers to really understand the market, the trend, where it's going, so we're able to give our customers that inside intelligence when they are a designer or have a product with us that is an existing product. We're able to guide them on alternative components, espe- cially on passives, and give them that forecast or that heads-up knowledge that a component is becoming obsolete or there's a long lead time, which affects their go-to-market. Having that partnership with the component suppliers and our customers really benefits our custom- ers from a product development standpoint. Las Marias: Apart from component obsoles- cence and lead times, I think another issue, Figure 4: The Vexos production facility.