PCB Component Sourcing and Stocking

At Sierra Circuits, we understand the challenges and risks involved with getting your product to market fast. We’ve learned to identify these risks at an early stage and have created a comprehensive solution to mitigate any potential threats and impacts to your business: PCB component sourcing and stocking through effective component management.

Component management: Addressing shortages and sourcing issues

In the current market, companies managing electronic components have been facing challenging times with successive waves of supply shortages, price hikes, and lengthening lead times. While market conditions have been steadily improving, these shortages have left a lasting impact on manufacturers and customers. Effective component management is crucial to navigate these challenges.

Sierra Circuits stays ahead of these issues by assisting customers with various component management challenges, such as:

• Component obsolescence
• Long lead times
• Limited vendors
• Supply chain disruptions

By taking care of your PCB component sourcing and stocking through our component management services, we help you reduce your product development time.

To eliminate additional handling of components, let Sierra source and store components for you.

Streamlined component management process: How does it work?

When customers send their bill of materials (BOMs), we verify them, remove any discrepancies observed, and alert them to any issues found with component part numbers, reference designators, and/or quantity mismatches. If a component isn’t available on the market, we suggest alternate solutions and seek the customer’s approval before finalizing the BOM.

For components not available through franchise distributors, we source them through our approved brokers or suggest alternatives, ensuring a seamless component management experience for our customers.

Design for assembly (DFA) check

Once we know which components customers require, our engineering team performs design checks to ensure that the mechanical dimensions and electrical specifications match and won’t cause assembly issues and delays. This is a critical part of our component management process to ensure quality and reliability.

Efficient PCB component sourcing

When we have found all the parts needed in the customer’s BOM, we purchase a quantity that has been agreed upon. Here, there are two options: the customer may ask us to purchase the exact quantity required for their current order or may ask us to purchase more parts that we can stock at our facilities in a customer-owned inventory (see below) to be used in future assemblies. This flexible approach is a key aspect of our component management strategy.

PCB component stocking with COIN

COIN, short for Customer Owned INventory, is your personalized PCB component stocking service for our top-tier customers. It helps reduce supply risk by ensuring the hard-to-find parts you need are always on hand before your bare printed circuit board gets to assembly. This innovative component management solution ensures that your turnkey PCB gets delivered on time.

How COIN works

All you need to know about the Customer Owned Inventory:

• We will provide one or more specific inventory locations for your components.
• You will receive a quote for procuring components..
• After each build, you can choose to have your components stored back in your inventory, or a portion of components sent with that build.
• Online reports available for COIN program:
  • Current inventory report
  • Usage report
  • Transaction history report
  • Clear to build/shortage report
  • Receiving report for consigned parts (CCI)
• You will have the ability to replenish or add to your COIN anytime by requesting a COIN quote. You have the flexibility to allocate the components to a specific build, or independent of any specific PCBA.
• All components stored in your inventory belong to you and can be requested for return at any time with a three-day notice.
• Sierra will store components in proper environment following industry standard component warehousing practices (MSL, ESD, etc.)
• Sierra follows proper protocols to reduce/eliminate the possibility of counterfeit components, through use of counterfeit detection protocols and use of reputed /vetted component suppliers.
• You can consign components to your COIN–if you have hard-to-find parts or proprietary parts.
• Short tape, or single passive components are not for COIN. Online form for consignment found in your customer portal.
• You will have a dedicated Program Manager as a single point of contact to resolve issues regarding COIN.

Inspection and counterfeit

Sierra Circuits follows a series of methods to identify counterfeit components as part of our robust component management practices. It starts with a visual inspection, verifying the part number written on the component against the shipping documentation. The validity of the date code is examined using previous data and past products bought from the supplier.

Other techniques to single out counterfeit components are:

• Electrical testing
• X-ray inspection
• XRF technique
• Decapping
• Scanning acoustic microscope
• Marking permanency test
• Scrap test

For more details, read our blog on how to detect counterfeit electronic components.

Counterfeit control policy

To reduce the risk of purchasing counterfeit parts, Sierra Circuits will:

• Not knowingly procure counterfeit material.
• Purchase whenever possible from original or authorized dealers, preferably in the USA and Western Europe.
• Purchase from brokers or non-franchised distributors after consideration of alternate parts, reasonable search of parts from franchised/authorized sources, and written approval from the customer.
• Employ a risk-based approach to reduce the frequency and impact of counterfeit material within Sierra Circuits acquisition process and lifecycle sustainment processes by applying prevention and early detection procedures to minimize the presence of counterfeit material within Sierra Circuit’s supply chain.
• Investigate, analyze, and assess all cases of suspected counterfeit material.
• Document occurrences of suspect and confirmed counterfeit material to the customer and to the appropriate reporting systems including the Government Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP).

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