Guest Blog: Industry Trends

"How to Save Money in a High-Mix, Low-Volume World"

RBB has already hosted two great sessions in our 2019-2020 Lunch & Learn series, "How to Save Money in a High-Mix, Low-Volume World." In our January Lunch & Learn, Norm Lelless of Future Electronics spoke about Industry Trends in the High-Mix, Low-Volume World. Here is a little summary of what Norm brought to the table:

Thank You for the invitation.

What an enjoyable day at RBB on January 28th to talk about industry trends and minimizing costs on High-Mix, Low-Volume PCB board runs.

We discussed ways to help keep costs at a minimum working together with engineering at OEMs(Original Equipment Manufacturers), Distributor FAE (Field Application Engineer), Sales, Suppliers, Supply Chain Managers, and Contract Manufacturer/Electronic Manufacturing Services.

From Design, Prototype, Pre-Production and Full Production, one easy way to help in the Supply Chain is to open the AVL(Approved Vendor List) to as many Suppliers as possible. Let the Distributors, Manufacturing Representatives, and Suppliers know as much in advance as possible to build up inventory.

Always, try to pick up sample stock from the Supply Chain if available.

The key to cost saving is to reduce the number of transactions/invoices with your Supply Chain. Too many purchase orders will add more costs to the small builds than any other cost. Combining purchase orders can also help minimize the total number of PO's.

For example:

• Use mini-reels or cut tape to reduce excess inventory costs. 
• Use bulk parts if possible and end to 3rd parties to tape and reel.
• All of these keep excess inventories at a minimum and quick turn timing at a maximum.

This is always a challenging part of the business, but working together the difficulties and cost can be reduced.