Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1181966
16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2019 Johnson: Usually, the next ques- tion we ask in these conversa- tions is, "What keeps you up at night?" I think you probably just answered that (laughs). Martin: I did (laughs). Because my team is global, every time there's a problem, we get involved as the escalation path from all the sites. Every day is a challenge for a new short- age, and it's holding up reve- nue and shipments. So, what can you do, and how can you do it? We're always trying to find solutions. I would tell you that every day brings a different issue, but they all come down to trying to meet the custom- ers' demands and needs and find the parts in the market. At this point, most of the parts are not related to long lead times, but it's end-of- life issues. Still, when the parts are running 30 weeks for procurement, very few custom- ers forecast well out—30+ weeks. If there's a three-week lead time for our manufacturing, then you're looking at 33–34 weeks total time from customer order to delivery. Very few cus- tomers have a good forecast out that far, at least in electronics; most of them are wanting products in less than 12 weeks, and the lead time on the components can be 30 weeks, so you're always scrambling trying to find parts for them. Johnson: That would give me professional indi- gestion. Martin: When you get a call from the general manager, telling you how desperately they need these parts, night after night, they ask for help. We're trying to find ways to solve the problem for them. I have one right now that is a special part, where the manufacturer put out an end of life notice for December. We went to place an order, and they said that they're out of the die. Even though their end of life is in December, they cannot make any more parts. That's today's problem. Johnson: That's going to happen more and more with these older parts. Martin: Right. We make multiple efforts. We look for any available inventory worldwide from franchise distributors. Concurrently, we work with a customer to get them to authorize or redesign in a new part, and then we look in the gray market worldwide for anything we can find and have those tested. That's how you go about this job. Johnson: This is a cautionary tale, if you will, for teams that are designing or maintaining existing designs. This will be their life if they are slow to make the transition. Martin: That's correct; it will be their life. It will impact their revenue stream because their chosen manufacturers won't be able to pro- duce the part, or there will be a delay in get- ting the parts, and their unit costs will go up because the tighter the market gets, the higher the prices go. It's in the customer's best inter- est to look at the design cycle and go as small as they can with components. Johnson: Stephanie, thank you for the time. It's always insightful and productive to talk to you. Martin: Thank you. I enjoyed it. SMT007