Sourcing ELECTRONICS


Catalogues enCourage serendipity


The humble component cataloguemay be responsible formore product innovation thanmany people imagine By Jon Barrett


Serendipity is a strange word. It can be difficult to pronounce and spell yet itsmeaning is simple: finding pleasant or useful things by chance.


Normally, in a process oriented electronics design and


manufacturing company you won’t hear the word serendipity very often. The reason is simple, if you aremanufacturing products to a set quality standard the last thing you want is to uncover something by chance: useful or not.


However, if an electronicsmanufacturing company wants to


innovate, its documented processesmust sometimes step aside and let serendipity through.Where, youmay ask, is this article taking us?Well, formany observers, serendipity and innovation are sole preserves of the design and development departments. However, inmy opinion, having worked in or observed the operations of hundreds of electronicsmanufacturers, chance findings are just as likely in the purchasing department and on the production floor.


If there is one object likely to generate chance findings it’s a


printed component catalogue. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve browsed through a catalogue looking for a specific part that I assumed wasmy only option, only to discover a better, often cheaper, solution. Likewise, as I flick the pages I often discover things I never knew existed, allowingme to contemplate approaching projects fromcompletely different angles.


With the introduction of internet-based e-catalogues, the goal


was often to take the buyer, via themost direct route, to exactly the part they were searching for. No roomfor serendipity there. However, as e-catalogues evolve into community based


26 | September 2010


purchasing environments, serendipity ismaking a comeback: sometimes automatically and sometimes via real people.


For example, having successfully discovered a product, some


sites offer alternative and supplementary options based on other customers’ buying habits. Likewise, having searched for and found a particular part, ratings and comments frompast customers of the same partmay encourageme to changemy preference. Powerful stuff.


There is little doubt that Europe’smanufacturing future lies


with it’s ability to innovate andmanufacture quality products and export themto the world. I guess Germany is the currentmodel.


It is possible to design business processes that foster


innovation. It’s also possible to teach innovation. It’s even possible to use artificial intelligence to innovate for you. Yet, just imagine if all those processes, training days and software were trumped by the randomact of a component catalogue falling open on a page you had never seen before. Don’t laugh, it happens all the time.


So, to conclude, I kindly ask electronics component


manufacturers and distributors to keep printing catalogues and keep designing online tools that encourage, rather then stifle, serendipity.


One day I’ll write to a collection of electronicsmanufacturers


and ask themto highlight any instances where serendipity has completely changed the way a product was designed, sourced and manufactured. I won’t expect a huge response, not because it never happens,more likely they will be embarrassed to admit that their success happened purely by chance.


www.electronics-sourcing.eu


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