Distribution


What’s so special about specialist distribution?


Debbie Rowland, director, Charcroft asks the question: is there any real difference in the support that engineers can expect from a specialist and a broadline distributor?


customers with greater choice. That is because the support provided by a specialist can be significantly different to that offered by a broadliner. Of course, both types of distributor offer technical support, but the independent specialist has fewer limitations because it does not have to conform to the services offered by other branches within a global network. A privately-owned independent distributor is answerable only to its customers and not to its shareholders. Its smaller size means that the chains of command are shorter too. Decisions can be made faster and based on customer need rather than corporate policy or the potential impact on the share-price. These factors mean that independent specialists have greater scope to deliver more flexible and comprehensive solutions.


Debbie Rowland, director, Charcroft Electronics


W


hen it comes to franchised distribution the industry can be split into roughly two models:


global broadline distributors with a wide number of franchises and product types and independent distributors specialising in a narrow range of products and territories. Over the last two decades the number of independent specialists has been drastically reduced as, one by one, they have been acquired by the global networks. For the broadliners these acquisitions represent a quick and easy way to obtain expert knowledge of an industry or territory into which they want to expand. The acquired, specialist knowledge is then absorbed within the broadliner’s global offering. There are, however, a few specialists which have remained independent and continue to thrive in an industry which is dominated by driving greater economies of scale to off-set shrinking margins. These specialists survive, not only because they continue to attract the support of OEM and CEM customers, but also because they attract the support of the component manufacturers.


It may seem logical for a global component manufacturer to want to partner with a similarly global distributor: they have fewer points of contact and greater consistency worldwide. But many global manufacturers, such as Kemet, Sensata, TT Electronics, and the Exxelia and Vishay Precision Groups, have realised that including an independent specialist in their distribution network provides their


18 September 2017 Integrated solutions


One example of this flexibility is the solution provided to a rail engineer who was struggling to design-in a drop-in replacement for a legacy circuit-breaker in a train electrical system. The original part had been specified with non-standard fixings and the only option seemed to be a costly and time-consuming re-configuration of the metalwork onto which the breaker was attached. After identifying a breaker which offered the same electrical performance, Charcroft’s Emech Specialist sourced a third- party fixings company and liaised with the breaker manufacturer and the customer engineer to produce new adaptor plates. These plates allowed the replacement breakers to be fitted directly into the existing footprint. This solution not only saved the customer the cost of re- configuring the original metal-work it also


Acquiring the manufacturing rights to a number of legacy passives ensures continuity of supply


meant that he only had to work with the distributor as a single source of supply for the complete solution.


Other challenges have been more unusual. An audio OEM wanted to differentiate their high-end system by using aluminium electrolytic capacitors branded with their corporate colours. Detailed discussions with the capacitor manufacturer resulted in the capacitor being shrink- wrapped in the OEM’s corporate colours before being shipped. Although this was not the most technical challenge, it did mean that the Product Specialist had to widen the scope of the support to provide the customer with a total solution.


Blue-sky thinking


The willingness to work outside and beyond the standard distribution role also extends to finding commercial solutions to manage Minimum Order Quantities (MoQs) or lead-times. With an MoQ of 50 pieces for a high-value power MOSFET, a major aerospace OEM would have needed to buy 48 unnecessary units just to complete one line of its Bill of Materials (BoM). After looking closely at the options, Charcroft suggested replacing the SOIC16 package, specified in the BoM with the more widely available DIP16 package. The DIP16 fulfilled the electrical and mechanical specifications of the original device but, crucially, had no MoQ and so allowed the OEM to buy only the two pieces that were needed.


Flexibility and customisation can deliver a total solution Components in Electronics


A long lead-time is another red flag which automatic prompts the sales team to look for ways to reduce or eliminate it. For one OEM, the lead-time on a two per


cent tolerance capacitor was quoted by the component manufacturer at 20 weeks. A close look at the full BoM showed that the OEM was also ordering 10K of the same device at a five per cent tolerance. With the five per cent device available ex-stock, Charcroft’s answer was to purchase a higher quantity of the five per cent devices and test them in-house to select-out the required number of two per cent devices. The result of this creative work-around was that the 20-week lead-time was slashed to just one week.


The independent can also be more flexible is in its response to specific customer or industry issues. When some customers in the defence industry were threatened by the obsolescence of a legacy ceramic capacitor, Charcroft simply bought the manufacturing rights and equipment. This ensured continuity of supply for the capacitor and was followed by other acquisitions to secure availability of silver mica and legacy foil resistors. The importance of the independent specialist to component manufacturers is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact the Charcroft was the first distributor in Europe to be appointed as a Vishay Approved Precision Centre. At the time, this was only the third such centre in the world. Whilst the number of independent specialists has decreased significantly over the past couple of decades, their continued existence ensures that customers have a genuine choice. For customers in lower- volume and more demanding quality-led industries, the independent’s more flexible approach to problem-solving can be crucial in smoothing out even the most challenging of technical and procurement issues.


www.charcroft.com www.cieonline.co.uk


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