Texas Instruments axing distributprs

[mikeselectricstuff]

TI are axing existing distributors
From
http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/ssdl003/ssdl003.pdf

In the short term, there is no immediate change to the way customers do business with TI. In the long term, customers will continue to have the following options for doing business with TI:
•Directly with TI.
•Through Arrow, as an authorized TI distributor in all regions, with the exception of Japan.
•Through Macnica or TED, who will continue to be authorized TI distributors in Japan.
•Customers who prefer to purchase TI products online for immediate shipment may continue to do so through the TI store, or through DigiKey or Mouser

Interesting that Farnell ( Avnet) aren't on that list..

[iMo]

And more manufacturers will follow soon, I bet..

[mikeselectricstuff]

I'm surprised that more manufacturers haven't moved to a direct supply model ( plus DK/Mouser).
I've never really understood what value most of the larger distributors add.

[BravoV]

I have been wondering about cutting the middlemen for years, as online transaction with end customer directly is just painless nowadays, I guess this is it.

Curious how much "margin" will these yield at the end of fiscal years.

[iMo]

They claim pretty often they offer "FAE"-like support, but mostly their know a little except pointing you on the datasheet and their price list. And neither a customer nor a manufacturer could be happy while reading their price lists.. Some manufacturers (ie FPGA manufacturers I was told) are struggling with them for a decade 

[daqq]

Great. I like using farnell, the shipping is OK and they have lots in stock. I'm guessing that direct shipping from TI will cost something fierce?

[nctnico]

TI are axing existing distributors
From
http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/ssdl003/ssdl003.pdf

In the short term, there is no immediate change to the way customers do business with TI. In the long term, customers will continue to have the following options for doing business with TI:
•Directly with TI.
•Through Arrow, as an authorized TI distributor in all regions, with the exception of Japan.
•Through Macnica or TED, who will continue to be authorized TI distributors in Japan.
•Customers who prefer to purchase TI products online for immediate shipment may continue to do so through the TI store, or through DigiKey or Mouser

Interesting that Farnell ( Avnet) aren't on that list..

And RS Components. Not saying Digikey and Mouser are bad but over here Farnell and RS are (about) the only ones offering next day delivery.

[filssavi]

I have been wondering about cutting the middlemen for years, as online transaction with end customer directly is just painless nowadays, I guess this is it.

Curious how much "margin" will these yield at the end of fiscal years.

For research the distributors are very important since the procurement office is usually barely functional and there is huge amount of red tape and paper to produce with each order, if now instead of doing a single order I have to do 5/6 for each board with each manufacturer it multiplies the amount of useless stuff I have to do by 5

And thus reduces greatly the chance I will design a part in

[jpanhalt]

Agree fully with filssavi.

TI is trading an increased profit margin for small-quantity buyers with customer satisfaction.  I have no problem with sales to large-volume buyers though a single distributor or directly.  Everybody does that.  It is hard to believe that small-volume buyers make that much difference to TI's bottom line, but they do contribute to the popularity of TI's products.

The importance of being able to get everything I need for a project from one supplier and paying just one shipping cost (if any) should not be underestimated.  Moreover, I doubt TI will meet the same shipping timelines as DK and Mouser do.   I have checked Arrow on occasion.  It is big and prices are competitive, but I could not fill my entire order from it.   

As one small example, I am presently considering whether to use the TI BQ24090/2 family or the Microchip MCP73833/4 battery management chips.  They are virtually identical.  Availability and user experience become important in that choice.  My little purchase won't make any difference to either company, but my experience with TI will make a difference for future purchases.

[jeremy]

Some manufacturers (ie FPGA manufacturers I was told) are struggling with them for a decade 

Today I looked up the most expensive FPGA on digikey; it was $177 000 AUD (roughly). I looked for the same part number on element14 and it was $88 000 AUD. 

[jeremy]

Moreover, I doubt TI will meet the same shipping timelines as DK and Mouser do.

I purchased some ICs direct from TI a few years ago because they were cheaper than digikey. It was maybe 30pcs or so, and I was getting some dev boards from TI anyway so I figured I might as well add them to the list. They arrived in identical packaging to Digikey, except that there were no digikey logos or digikey part numbers anywhere; they weren’t scribbled out or anything, there was just blank space where they should be. But the complicated label on the anti static bag with the various barcodes was almost certainly using the same digikey label generator.

So maybe digikey is providing a drop ship service for TI, and they are just subsidising the cost?

[rdl]

The last thing I bought from the TI store (a book) was shipped from Thief River Falls, MN

Previous experiences with buying from the TI store were not exactly what I would call customer friendly, but that's going back quite a ways. Hopefully they've gotten better with more experience.

[coppice]

I'm surprised that more manufacturers haven't moved to a direct supply model ( plus DK/Mouser).
I've never really understood what value most of the larger distributors add.

The value of a distributor varies a lot with the country. In some places they do little more than fullfillment. In some they offer a lot more coverage than a small vendor could realistically offer. In some they offer considerable FAE support, although that's mostly for big customers. In some they act as bank and debt collector, where its a slow and difficult process to get payment from customers.

[donotdespisethesnake]

Is TI run by morons? No more TI parts for me...!

I looked on RS UK site and all TI parts appear to be flagged:

Due to temporarily constrained supply, RS is unable to accept backorders at this time

[angrybird]

This isn't surprising.  The semiconductor market is not in the greatest shape and if the disty can't add enough value, it no longer makes financial sense for the manufacturer to do business with them.  Once exception will always be Japan, here the disty is required by law and that's not likely to change.  The disty are basically mafia there, it's kind of funny.  You go to visit a Japanese company and it's you/your people and the company representatives doing all the talking, but there are these couple guys with laptops just sitting there and typing...  Not really contributing anything... Probably won't send you any notes after the meeting... But their presence is required by law!

It is true that the disty is adding value by saving customers time when they processing paperwork and submit orders to multiple vendors for a single order, but this is not really a value add for the manfacturer.  A majority of most semiconductor companies' revenue comes from large volume purchases, large enough that the purchaser isn't really worried about this paperwork.  Sucks for the little guy, but hey, if you don't like it, work hard and be a bigger fish.  Otherwise don't complain because it is what it is.

The value add for the semiconductor manufacturer is when the disty is actually knowledgeable on the parts they can offer and find new opportunities, customers, and projects for the manufacturer.  This also is an opportunity for the manufacturer to get intel on new product opportunities and ideas.  IMHO many of the disty's have failed miserably on this in the past decade or so and this change was due a long time ago.  This has caused some manufacturers to work out deals where if the volume is greater than X, the opportunity is removed from the disty and pulled internal, removing the disty margin.  They have not been happy about deals like this but didn't really have a choice but to comply.  They have been fighting tooth and nail to just keep what they have.

I would bet that there was a bidding war on disty margin, lowest bidder takes all, and Arrow won?

I'd expect decisions like this from other semiconductor companies as well, especially ones which sell a lot of differentiated(i.e., not commoditized) type products in the market.

[igendel]

So, if I'm on Digikey or Mouser, searching by parameters for an opamp or something, no TI options will come up and be available? What an interesting business decision 
[Edit: No, these two will still carry TI]

[jeremy]

So, if I'm on Digikey or Mouser, searching by parameters for an opamp or something, no TI options will come up and be available? What an interesting business decision 

I think you misunderstood, digikey and mouser will be the same as they always were. It’s other distributors that you will have problems with.

[igendel]

So, if I'm on Digikey or Mouser, searching by parameters for an opamp or something, no TI options will come up and be available? What an interesting business decision 

I think you misunderstood, digikey and mouser will be the same as they always were. It’s other distributors that you will have problems with.

Right! I missed the last point in their announcement...

[olkipukki]

•Customers who prefer to purchase TI products online for immediate shipment may continue to do so through the TI store, or through DigiKey or Mouser

I have really positive experience dealing with TI directly, there a lot of improvements done since they introduced their store.
Actually, TI was one of the first who allows to use PayPal.

The prices usually better than DigiKey/Mouser, especially in 1000+ qty you very likely will pay 15-25% less.

The support is based in Germany and quite responsive, and shipping from US (into EU) goes through NL, so less admin paperwork.

Unfortunately, USD currency only.


P.S.
I wish Maxim Integrated learn from TI!

[PTR_1275]

Like others have said about TI online sales and Digi-Key.

I needed some TI parts that was going to put on a Digi-Key order. None in stock. Ok, TI online had some so I put my Digi-Key order in, put my TI order in and went on with my life.

Noticed a few days later that both parcels were coming from Thief River Falls. Coincidence, I think not.

Ti parts had the same bags, same labels (with some Digi-Key things missing). Quite the pissoff that I had to pay shipping on the TI parts that clearly came from the Digi-Key warehouse the same day that my Digi-Key order with free shipping left.

There must be some under the table stuff going between Ti and Digi-Key.

[jeremy]

I don't claim to have any knowledge of the situation, but obviously with digikey you are paying the cost of shipping in the markups. So maybe TI has the alternate model where you pay for shipping but the margin is lower? And I think it's pretty clear that TI (or digikey) don't want to advertise that digikey was actually the supplier all along.

[rsjsouza]

I received this message as well, but it was a bit weird as it is old news:

https://www.eenewspower.com/news/avnet-loses-tis-19bn-distribution-business-update

[Someone]

Ti parts had the same bags, same labels (with some Digi-Key things missing). Quite the pissoff that I had to pay shipping on the TI parts that clearly came from the Digi-Key warehouse the same day that my Digi-Key order with free shipping left.

There must be some under the table stuff going between Ti and Digi-Key.

Digikey have been doing the fulfilment for TI samples and direct orders for quite some time. I wonder if TI hold back a certain minimum stock for their exclusive uses? Certainly annoying in your case.

[Ice-Tea]

And RS Components. Not saying Digikey and Mouser are bad but over here Farnell and RS are (about) the only ones offering next day delivery.

Drove up to their warehouse in Luik a few times for "same day deliver" (pickup).

Those were not good times :c

[olkipukki]

Digikey have been doing the fulfilment for TI samples and direct orders for quite some time.

Maybe depends from stock and destination?

Mine orders shipped from FORT WORTH, TX

https://wpl.ext.ti.com/itc/documents/TI-store_Shipments_Support_Requests.pdf

[Ice-Tea]

Fort Worth = Mouser.

[olkipukki]

Fort Worth = Mouser.

Ah, that's true and ship by Fedex, of course.

The next time I will check if Mouser's or Digi's stock availability will drop after TI order. 

[tooki]

TI are axing existing distributors
From
http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/ssdl003/ssdl003.pdf

In the short term, there is no immediate change to the way customers do business with TI. In the long term, customers will continue to have the following options for doing business with TI:
•Directly with TI.
•Through Arrow, as an authorized TI distributor in all regions, with the exception of Japan.
•Through Macnica or TED, who will continue to be authorized TI distributors in Japan.
•Customers who prefer to purchase TI products online for immediate shipment may continue to do so through the TI store, or through DigiKey or Mouser

Interesting that Farnell ( Avnet) aren't on that list..

And RS Components. Not saying Digikey and Mouser are bad but over here Farnell and RS are (about) the only ones offering next day delivery.

You have Distrelect in the NL as well. I use them here in Switzerland when I need something ASAP. Here in the Zurich area, next-day is their slow shipping option — they offer same-day delivery for 20 francs!

[nctnico]

But Distrelec charges 11 euro where RS charges 5 euro and Farnell has free shipping. Also I don't see Distrele mentioned in TI's announcement unless Distrelec is part of one of the distributors. BTW Farnell is pretty much standard over here so TI really shot themselves in the foot. When working on a new design I often start at Farnell looking for suitable parts. If a distri like Farnell carries a part it is likely to have some popularity which also translates into a higher chance a part will be available for a longer time. Lots of people work this way. Even Wurth (which is very pushy to order from them directly) is not ignoring the fact that many people use distris like Farnell and RS to find suitable parts for their design and hence a lot of Wurth parts are carried by Farnell and RS.

[station240]

It depends on where in the world you are, as to what places have the cheapest/free postage.
For Australia, RS is free for any order, and next day (if in stock locally).
Farnell (Element14) is free for orders over AU$50, otherwise it's AU$15.
Mouser is free for (most) orders over AU$60, otherwise it's , and 3-5 days.
Arrow is free for orders over US$50, otherwise it's , and express shipping (whatever that is).

Arrow do require you to sign up for their free ArrowPerks program to get the free express shipping.

I'd prefer to keep using RS, Farnell are a pain to deal with as far as order tracking.
But TI have done this so choices are:
1. Order directly from TI, which I was thinking of doing for some orders.
2. Buy equivalent parts from say ST or On Semi, from RS.
3. Order from Mouser, as I already have parts I need but only they have.

Probably have to do all three, and live with having no way to get some parts quickly.

[Cerebus]

Moreover, I doubt TI will meet the same shipping timelines as DK and Mouser do.

I purchased some ICs direct from TI a few years ago because they were cheaper than digikey. It was maybe 30pcs or so, and I was getting some dev boards from TI anyway so I figured I might as well add them to the list. They arrived in identical packaging to Digikey, except that there were no digikey logos or digikey part numbers anywhere; they weren’t scribbled out or anything, there was just blank space where they should be. But the complicated label on the anti static bag with the various barcodes was almost certainly using the same digikey label generator.

So maybe digikey is providing a drop ship service for TI, and they are just subsidising the cost?

The last time I looked at ordering something from TI (a watch dev kit I think, I didn't order it in the end) they made it explicitly clear that fulfilment for that would be done by Digikey.

[pope]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Sorry to resurrect this thread but has anyone in EU placed an order directly from TI? If so, did you get hit by custom fees, etc.. or the price shown is the total price?

[ebastler]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Would that be because you only received a single reply in that other thread after waiting for three long hours? 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/migrating-to-texas-instruments-arm-from-stm32/msg5326988/#msg5326988

Please don't double-post, thank you.

[PartialDischarge]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Sorry to resurrect this thread but has anyone in EU placed an order directly from TI? If so, did you get hit by custom fees, etc.. or the price shown is the total price?

I've ordered reels many times from them directly, sale is done thru TI in Germany with german VAT, so if this is for a business then no VAT, it its personal then you'll get VAT. Same as Mouser.

[pope]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Would that be because you only received a single reply in that other thread after waiting for three long hours? 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/migrating-to-texas-instruments-arm-from-stm32/msg5326988/#msg5326988

Please don't double-post, thank you.

No that would be because not everyone who have ordered from TI participated in that thread. It's not that I started a new topic twice but thanks for the suggestion.

[pope]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Sorry to resurrect this thread but has anyone in EU placed an order directly from TI? If so, did you get hit by custom fees, etc.. or the price shown is the total price?

I've ordered reels many times from them directly, sale is done thru TI in Germany with german VAT, so if this is for a business then no VAT, it its personal then you'll get VAT. Same as Mouser.

Thank you. So just to clarify, you placed the orderes directly on the www.ti.com, right? I'm asking because I would like to drop an email to TI Germany but I can't find any German email.

What about shipping. How long does it usually take? Is it 2-3 days like Mouser or longer?

[PartialDischarge]

Yes ti.com, you don't deal directly with TI germany. Shipping could take a little longer than Mouser, 3-7 days, because it ships from Asia, and delays are usual.

[pope]

Yes ti.com, you don't deal directly with TI germany. Shipping could take a little longer than Mouser, 3-7 days, because it ships from Asia, and delays are usual.

Fair enough. Many thanks for your help!

[tooki]

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd also ask here...

Sorry to resurrect this thread but has anyone in EU placed an order directly from TI? If so, did you get hit by custom fees, etc.. or the price shown is the total price?

The ti.com website is extraordinarily clear about this: when you log in and set your regional settings for ordering (tap “ship to” (if none selected yet) or the country name in the bar at the top) and choose your country and payment currency, it tells you exactly what the available conditions are.

You probably want DDP incoterms, where customs and duty are prepaid and pre-cleared, so no surprise charges.

[tooki]

Yes ti.com, you don't deal directly with TI germany. Shipping could take a little longer than Mouser, 3-7 days, because it ships from Asia, and delays are usual.

Asia? I thought they shipped from Digi-Key in USA.

[PartialDischarge]

Yes ti.com, you don't deal directly with TI germany. Shipping could take a little longer than Mouser, 3-7 days, because it ships from Asia, and delays are usual.

Asia? I thought they shipped from Digi-Key in USA.

Why would TI sell and ship their own inventory, at prices much lower than those of Mouser/Digikey, from Digikey?
All of the different items I've ordered came from Malasia where probably they have a factory, and this may not be the only worldwide location, but probably a main one.

[tooki]

Yes ti.com, you don't deal directly with TI germany. Shipping could take a little longer than Mouser, 3-7 days, because it ships from Asia, and delays are usual.

Asia? I thought they shipped from Digi-Key in USA.

Why would TI sell and ship their own inventory, at prices much lower than those of Mouser/Digikey, from Digikey?
All of the different items I've ordered came from Malasia where probably they have a factory, and this may not be the only worldwide location, but probably a main one.

Numerous companies use Digi-Key to fulfill small orders and/or samples. I have ordered from both TI and AD and they came from Thief River Falls, and while they didn’t have DK branding anywhere, the packaging was also DK’s.

Small-order fulfillment is different from large orders, so some companies prefer to farm out small-order logistics to distributors who are specialized in that. They have separate inventory (whether it is kept physically separate I don’t know, but cents for inventory purposes it is separate), which is why you can sometimes order samples from AD even if DK has zero stock for sale.

[watchmaker]

I just tried to order some TL074CNs from DigiKey.  They reported them as unavailable.

TI had em.  Used my website to register and they are now on the way (what I will do with 26 I have no idea).

TI made me swear on my first born that I was not shipping them overseas. 

I am thinking that given non USA orders that get delayed this may be an export control thing.  For those who never get answers from the US suppliers about why their orders are flagged, look up the US "Patriot" Act.  A company, educational institution, or individual cannot even divulge they have been contacted under penalty of imprisonment.

Brave "new" world (quotes because that law was rammed thru in 2002).

[themadhippy]

That there patriot act is really working well  ,just look how the  sale of us made chips to russia  has declined in the past year or 2.

[watchmaker]

That there patriot act is really working well  ,just look how the  sale of us made chips to russia  has declined in the past year or 2.

It was Librarians who fought it the most; and I think they still refuse to comply.  Not sure.  This is Star Chamber stuff.

[tooki]

I am thinking that given non USA orders that get delayed this may be an export control thing.

Obviously.

For those who never get answers from the US suppliers about why their orders are flagged, look up the US "Patriot" Act.  A company, educational institution, or individual cannot even divulge they have been contacted under penalty of imprisonment.

You’re mixing things up.

Given that a common viewable status of international orders from DK and Mouser is “export compliance review” (or something to that effect), it’s no secret when that’s the holdup. If a company fails to reply, it’s simply because they’re being shitty at communicating, as most companies seem to be regardless of the purpose of the communication.

The Patriot Act is an huge monster of a law, containing numerous provisions that are totally unrelated to each other. It only tangentially deals with export controls, and really just refers to other, existing export control laws and regulations, the novelty being that violations can now be legally considered a form of terrorism.

The secrecy requirements are in regard to subpoenas and wiretaps, all provisions of the Act unrelated to export control.

It was Librarians who fought it the most; and I think they still refuse to comply.  Not sure.  This is Star Chamber stuff.

They were just vocal about it, and the media picked up on their clever use of “canary” signs to indicate whether they’d been subpoenaed. (I.e. they’d have a sign posted saying something like “We have not received any subpoenas under the PATRIOT Act in the last 3 months.”, so if you saw the sign disappear, then you would know that they had been subpoenaed.)

[rsjsouza]

For those who never get answers from the US suppliers about why their orders are flagged, look up the US "Patriot" Act.  A company, educational institution, or individual cannot even divulge they have been contacted under penalty of imprisonment.

You’re mixing things up.

Given that a common viewable status of international orders from DK and Mouser is “export compliance review” (or something to that effect), it’s no secret when that’s the holdup. If a company fails to reply, it’s simply because they’re being shitty at communicating, as most companies seem to be regardless of the purpose of the communication.

100%. Having faced this scenario many times over the past decade or two, I can tell the absolute silence is mostly due to incompetency. When I was in the support organization, we were instructed to reply providing a boilerplate paragraph as to why the business channel and further communications were shut down, and this was vetted by the lawyers in the organization.

[watchmaker]

It was Librarians who fought it the most; and I think they still refuse to comply.  Not sure.  This is Star Chamber stuff.

They were just vocal about it, and the media picked up on their clever use of “canary” signs to indicate whether they’d been subpoenaed. (I.e. they’d have a sign posted saying something like “We have not received any subpoenas under the PATRIOT Act in the last 3 months.”, so if you saw the sign disappear, then you would know that they had been subpoenaed.)

Tooki,

Actually they did far more than that.  I was 50 and very politically active.  Here was one example:  Their pushback helped control the overreach.

https://www.ifla.org/past-wlic/2009/117-jones-en.pdf

Never heard the canary story.  Interesting strategy.

There was a time in my lifetime when individual privacy was so valued that the IRS would not divulge where an absent spouse was.  There was a special office that handled such requests and would only say if they were paying taxes.  I know this because my father came back from Burma all screwed up and deserted us.  Only found him 10 years later and he shortly committed suicide.  Today it is called PTSD.

We have lost much.  I get the child support and terrorism sides of the arguments, but as a 13-year-old kid, no one ever questioned me when I walked the street with my .22 in a city of 50,000.  But then, there was no need to.

Glad I am on my way out.