Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1547450
22 SMT007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2026 F E AT U R E A RT I C L E BY R A L P H R I C H A RT, M E T I S LO G I C Finding Lead Time in the Messy Middle I call this the Messy Middle. It is the period when a quoted job becomes a buildable job. During this time, the bill of materials changes: alternates are added, quantities shift, purchase decisions are made, and customer-supplied material arrives. Parts must be received, stored, allocated, and picked. Through it all, questions arise and pass between program manage- ment, purchasing, receiving, the customer, and the shop floor. As electronics manufacturers, we devote significant effort to the production floor, always seeking to build products better and faster. We measure placement speed, optimize changeovers, monitor yield, and invest in equipment. Those invest- ments matter. But in many high-mix and new product introduction (NPI) environments, the greatest oppor- tunity to shorten lead time sits between the customer order and the start of production.