Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1477844
42 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2022 change in plans to management, your board of directors, and/or your shareholders? In the past, when you received a committed date or price, you may not have liked it, but you knew that you could count on it. ose days feel like they are long gone—at least for now. It feels like the perfect storm with this global event taking place; not just a regional or man- ufacturer specific event, but the added burden of other dependencies such as logistics, down- stream suppliers, raw materials, outside pro- cesses, and more, that impacts our daily lives. With many of our customers in mil/aero we add "degrees of difficulty" to our supply chain processes. Because so many of our custom- ers cannot provide forecasts for various rea- sons, we struggle with being able to pass fore- casts along to our suppliers. e positive news is that some of our customers now understand the situation due to their own experiences in the supply chain. ey are now providing POs to us out into 2024. While we have manufactur- ers/suppliers requesting our 2024 forecasts/ orders now they will not support us, there are still suppliers who will not accept orders for delivery in 2024 due to the unknowns about the future. ey are not willing to commit. As I did when I worked for an OEM, I now manage our EMS provider relationships. Cus- tomers rely on their EMS partners to own the relationships with suppliers and to have the skills and capabilities in place to manage the customer's supply chain. e challenge is that, as an EMS provider, we have little lever- age with the original component manufactur- ers (OCMs). During the design/NPI process the customer works with these manufacturers and/or distributors on the design of their prod- ucts, negotiating terms such volumes, pricing, and lead times. As such, they have the leverage. I had one OCM make it perfectly clear to me, "We own the customer." In the OEM world, I had to make it very clear to our OCMs and distributors that when one of our EMS part- ners contacted them they were speaking on our behalf, so respond accordingly. Workforce Challenges Some of the workforce challenges that we have been faced with include a greater than expected impact on our suppliers and manu- facturers, and growth of our company. To the first point, we have seen: • e "great resignation" is in full effect • COVID impacts to workforce availability caused by shutdowns and social distancing • Reduced service levels to customers, including longer lead times for products, longer response time for inquiries, processing quotes, providing commitments, etc. As to the growth at Axiom, we see the chal- lenges of having more positions to fill as employees have moved on, getting more peo- ple to apply for open positions, and finding the desired skill set to fill our open positions. What Are the Silver Linings? Despite these challenges, there is much to be learned and appreciated from the past two years. We are now implementing long-term improvements as we've learned from these obstacles and challenges. Here are just a few: • Because of the extended and unreliable lead times, customers are more open to the independent/broker/alternative markets; even mil/aero companies are now interested in looking at options such as: › Stock availability within our Axiom "qualified" independent distribution partners › Using BOM tools such as Z2Data, Silicon Expert or IHS; looking at alternate manufacturers, functional equivalents, etc. › Using EMS Alliances through tools such as StockCQ and WatchCQ from CalcuQuote to see what inventory may be available outside of the franchised or independent distribution markets.