Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1477844
52 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2022 I remember about a year ago, a couple of those online sources told us, "Give us the funds and we will transfer the component to you." at has become their mode of operation. Immediately, if a supplier insists on getting the funds first, we know something is wrong because a reputable supplier wouldn't do that. Matties: Are you seeing more customers get involved in the sourcing process? Ghalili: ey are frustrated because they need parts, and when we give them a delivery time of 14 to 18 weeks, they go online and maybe find a two-week source. But at the end of the day, I haven't seen one that was reliable and could deliver in two weeks. Zou: More customers are starting to accept the fact about long lead times. Matties: You're right. ere's a level of frustration that we've never seen before in the sup- ply chain. OEMs must rely on their EMS contract manufac- turer (CM) suppliers to val- idate. Consequently, you're putting more energy and effort into the front end: sourcing and vali- dation. Do you have to increase your pricing to offset that? ey're paying for the service, right? You're really providing a sourcing ser- vice beyond what the normal business would have been without the supply chain crisis. Ghalili: e way we set up our price structure accommodates that into our system. Let's say we had a component that had been priced at 5 cents, now it's 20 cents, and they wanted it within three weeks. We tell them, "ere is a price raise on this one component." But the validating process is built into the quoting pro- cess. We do it early on. Matties: Are you finding that other companies are calling to find out whether you have sur- plus inventory you're willing to sell? Zou: Some customers have other projects that don't use us, but they still ask us for help, so we try to give them information. Because of the supply chain issues, everyone in the network tries to help each other. One of our bigger cus- tomers, even though pretty influential, will still sometimes ask us for help. ere's mutual support. Ghalili: I have some good examples of this. A few smaller EMS providers here in Fremont have reached out and said, "Can you source this product for us? We're struggling." I hand those requests to Meghan, and we have sourced it for them. I'm seeing more of this situa- tion. In addition to Meghan's example, we had a customer last year that had completely shut down. ey were work- ing with a much bigger EMS provider that had shut down because of an issue getting an LED product. We were able to source that LED product and get it out to them. Now they're looking to move their EMS manufacturing to us because of the service we offered. ey see more value- add with us than they did before, when they primarily saw us as just an assembly house. ey are looking for that value-add. Matties: Do you find that OEMs are talking to you before they actually design their products and that there is more collaborative manufac- turing going on? Ghalili: ere was some element of that hap- pening prior; they are working with our design teams in the early stages, and we are working