DISTRIBUTION FEATURE
THE NEW AGE OF CUSTOMER In a changing world
through the acquisitions of CadSoft with its pcb design software, Embest and the CooCox ARM Cortex development tools, which are proprietary to Premier Farnell; and most recently AVID Technologies, a design services company with experience in the areas of analogue, wireless, power management and embedded technologies. Suppliers are becoming customers.
Whereas in the past we used to talk to Corporate Distribution and sales teams about NPI, the distributor is working with its suppliers’ product development teams, adding value through producing development kits to support customers. These strategic partnerships are a
Mike Buffham, Global Head of Product and Pricing at Premier Farnell explores the changing face of electronics distribution
D
istribution is changing; customers are demanding more from the
traditional component distributor from full end to end solutions with technical information, software and hardware support, components in a range of volumes and a variety of delivery options. The customer is changing too; the line between supplier and customer is blurring. Distributors are responding by changing their offering, creating solutions that support customers’ right the way through the design cycle. The age of the development kit is also
very much upon us. Offering readymade, low cost boards allowing them to test their designs with a variety of components. In line with this, Premier Farnell has invested heavily in its development kit proposition from the top suppliers in both Analogue and Embedded design. The distributor’s proposition includes a
comprehensive range of hardware development platforms for ARM processor-based MCU design and ARM development tools including IDEs, Compilers, Debuggers, Simulators, Performance Analysers and RTOS. Development tools and single board
computers are putting powerful design tools in the hands of private innovators. Finished products are getting to market quicker than we have ever seen before. Along with this, the lines between
software and hardware are blurring, with software being increasingly implemented at the start of the design and with hardware being designed around it.
Figure 1:
TI HapTouch BoosterPack
Premier Farnell’s partnerships with Segger and Micrium open up RTOS and debugging to the solutions the distributor already offers.
VOLUME PRODUCTION Following significant investment in inventory from 2013-14 is enabling the distributor to continue to support its customers in the mid to low volume arena through the prototype stage and on into production. A number of peripheral services have been developed to ensure this process is as efficient as possible. Date and Lot Codes on products are
Figure 2: NXP explore NFC board
being rolled out across Europe enabling 20,000 components to be despatched with new bar-coded product labels and despatch notes representing the most popular semi and passive components across all major franchises. Enabled by the newly implemented
voice pick system within a specified zone of the UK warehouse, Date and Lot Coding is provided automatically on all relevant components and is important in industries where traceability is essential such as medical and aerospace. The distributors’ online Community,
element14 is made up of 230,000 engineers and is a resource tool with discussion, data sheets and new products. Regular road tests put products in the hands of real design engineers and genuinely support product development. The foundations for the strategy to support customers from design through to production have been laid down
unique proposition to Premier Farnell combining Embest’s ARM Cortex embedded design specialism with the world’s top silicon manufacturers. The Internet of Things is a key trend the
distributor is embracing this year and development kit accessories that support connectivity, power consumption and touch form part of our core offering. Two example accessories launched recently include the Texas Instruments (TI) HapTouch BoosterPack and NXP EXPLORE-NFC. The TI BoosterPack allows developers to
rapidly integrate haptics technology into their designs combining MSP430TCH5E haptics MCUs and TI’s DRV2603 haptic driver into a game controller form factor. The BoosterPack can be plugged into TI’s MSP430 LaunchPad evaluation kit to demonstrate the ease of configuring capacitive touch buttons that provide audio-to-haptics feedback. Distribution is changing. The age of the
simple component distributor is dead, customers and suppliers are demanding a manufacturing partner and full design solution as well as the high service they have come to expect. Premier Farnell has anticipated this trend and has responded with a comprehensive customer and supplier solution. The distributor’s strategic partnerships with some of the world’s largest semiconductor businesses as well as its extensive development kit proposition are planned to continue to grow throughout 2014 and onwards.
Premier Farnell
www.premierfarnell.com 02084088000
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ELECTRONICS | MAY 2014
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