How do you handle component sourcing for small production runs?

[James Anderson]

I'm curious how others here handle component sourcing when moving from prototypes to small production runs.

For a prototype, buying a few parts from the usual distributors is usually straightforward. The situation becomes more complicated when a BOM contains dozens or hundreds of different components and the production quantity is still relatively small.

The issues I tend to run into are:

* Parts with long lead times
* Different MOQ requirements between suppliers
* Finding a suitable second source without changing the PCB
* Price differences between prototype quantities and production quantities
* Verifying manufacturer, date code and package information
* Keeping the BOM manageable when several suppliers are involved

For example, if a BOM contains common ICs, MOSFETs, regulators, connectors and passive components, would you normally try to source everything from one distributor, or split the BOM between several suppliers?

I'm also interested in how people deal with obsolete or difficult-to-source parts. Do you normally redesign around an alternative part, use an authorized distributor, or work with an independent component sourcing company?

For small production runs, which approach has worked best for you?

[SMTech]

I'm curious how others here handle component sourcing when moving from prototypes to small production runs.

For a prototype, buying a few parts from the usual distributors is usually straightforward. The situation becomes more complicated when a BOM contains dozens or hundreds of different components and the production quantity is still relatively small.

The issues I tend to run into are:

* Parts with long lead times
* Different MOQ requirements between suppliers
* Finding a suitable second source without changing the PCB
* Price differences between prototype quantities and production quantities
* Verifying manufacturer, date code and package information
* Keeping the BOM manageable when several suppliers are involved

For example, if a BOM contains common ICs, MOSFETs, regulators, connectors and passive components, would you normally try to source everything from one distributor, or split the BOM between several suppliers?

I'm also interested in how people deal with obsolete or difficult-to-source parts. Do you normally redesign around an alternative part, use an authorized distributor, or work with an independent component sourcing company?

For small production runs, which approach has worked best for you?

As a contract manufacturer who does quite a lot of low volume work, this is something we come at from both sides.

The client has to specify parts in the BOM with at least some flexibility, so for instance they might give significant leeway for your generic passives as long as we choose the same spec. Being too specific on generic items will always get you in trouble, the most innocuous of parts can go out of stock or be unavailable in suitable low quantities. In some cases we go back to the client and get them to look at problem lines, they might anticipate issues with some parts and have their own stock or they might issue parts they source from slightly greyer markets (not a risk we want to take on). We might do some basic research to offer a few alternatives we can see in stock but in the case where its not our design, its not our place to say what works.

We basically have to buy from everyone, as a UK company obviously we focus quite a lot of our buying on RS/Farnell/Anglia/Rapid.. we have commercial relationships with all of them and have discounts attached to our account that can be anything from 20% off the screen price, to paying the last break price even if we are buying  just 10. These companies tend to be quicker than places like Arrow but all UK suppliers are somewhat averse to stocking slower moving parts. Everything expensive and analogue from TI/LT/AD etc ends up needing to come from Mouser or Digikey as do quite  lot of PICs, FPGAs or anything weird, we don't have those pricing relationships with them.

We do all this manually, no hooks into peoples systems but we do have historical data for the various supplier part numbers and pricing. We revisit almost all of it as requirements come up especially if we see significant price movement. While supply issues crop up, there is usually a way around most things. For our own products, we absolutely spin up different board versions before we start groveling into sketchy stock, typically if something is hard to source it will also become expensive and can easily remove our margin.

There is another option you can hand your BOM to a broker or kitting company, and say buy all this for me, there you go single source.

[Kean]

Based on previous posts by this OP, I believe this may be an AI generated post.  The question is a bit too broad to answer usefully, and they never reply to threads they start.  They are likely a previously banned user (xecor).