NEWS // FEATURES // NEW PRODUCTS
has never been seen before, mistakes will be made; the process involves trial and error, and the iterate process of making mistakes, and learning from them, involves time, money, and costs; these include costs in terms of relationship, costs in terms of expectations, costs in terms of time-to-market. Thus, by outsourcing product development and
manufacturing overseas, we recognize that the responsibility for its creation and development, including the costs of problem-solving, will be borne by the manufacturer. But what we are also doing is providing them with valuable tools and experience that they in turn can use to compete effectively with us. By outsourcing, I have enabled them to be innovative and learn how to solve the problem. I haven't solved it; but I have in effect outsourced the innovative aspect of solving problems. International patent fi lings chartWhat’s next? I suggest that in time were going to see a spike in patents from foreign entities more so than U.S. entities, because as they begin to solve problems in unique ways and come up with unique solutions, we're going to see these things start to manifest themselves more and more in products that compete in the world market with ours. Patents fi led by competing manufacturers overseas will be effective in terms of locking up their value proposition. It isn’t too late for us here in the U.S., however.
If I ask, “What makes us unique here in the states? That can I get here that I cannot get anywhere else? Thus far, we've kept that innovation, know-how, that secret sauce. It’s still alive within our company and many others. And, like many others, we’re stateside, which means that those entities, specifi cally military and government, that need US-based content are a continuing source of business for us, and this can be the springboard to rebuilding competition in the global marketplace. Infrastructure here benefi ts U.S. companies as
well, in terms of the supply chain, shipping and transporting and obtaining materials. My supply chain isn't predicated on having my products sit on a ship for six weeks, or the consequent necessity of having a safety supply of product capable of lasting those six weeks, or having materials at the vendor for
34 EIU
six weeks because they have to make sure that the pipeline doesn't go dry, etc. In essence, then, I have just described a project
that would normally take two weeks to build and realistically drawn it out into 18 weeks of just the supply chain plus the two weeks of build time; I went from a two-week cycle to 20 weeks, and I’m paying for that 18 weeks’ worth of materials that are sitting on the shelf and on the ship. Never mind the possibility that after the 18 weeks I’ll fi nally get that shipment and fi nd out that there's a problem with one of the products and have to go back to the beginning of the chain, fi x it! That means that everything produced between when I found the problem and what has shipped is “dead on arrival,” so to say. So what's the cost of that? I term that the cost of the loss of innovation. The cost per part, for the tangible products,
might be cheaper initially to the outsourcer; but the total cost of development, ownership, usage, lack of control, storage, fees, quality issues, and lack of know-how is signifi cantly greater and at times in magnitudes of order greater. Many people do not recognize what these potential and very real costs are because they are essentially intangible; but they are certainly quantifi able! The simple matter is that once you remove the necessity, you remove the innovation. Once that’s gone, you become just another consumer, not the market maker.
Product release submission guidelines Have you got a new product which you’d like to see featured in this magazine? Go ahead and send it to us, we’d be delighted to include it. The EIU team receives press releases and article submissions on a daily basis. We make a point of ensuring that almost all of the releases we receive appear on the most relevant of our websites –
www.electronicscomponentsworld.com or
www.electronicsproductionworld.com – and from there, published in this magazine. If you’d like to reach a wider audience, contact the EIU team with your submission, including a high resolution photograph where possible. All press releases should be sent to either
editorial@electronicscomponentsworld.com or
editorial@electronicsproductionworld.com, as is relevant. Submissions for technical articles, industry interviews, and company profi les can be sent to
donal@blackdotpublishing.com.
www.electronicscomponentworld.com /
www.electronicproductionworld.com September 2011
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