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Making the correct component decisions for your product can be challenging. The decision of which component to select is often based on immediate availability and the best price in low volumes. However, as your designs mature and as you begin to think about scaling up your production, this early decision can create sourcing problems down the road. Alternatively, you could choose the component that has the biggest price breaks at the highest volumes and buy whole reels during the prototype phase. This leads to outlaying more capital than is necessary at the early stages of production. If your later design variations eliminate this component, you may have to unload the unneeded stock at a loss.
Today we’re happy to announce a new feature in our cloud manufacturing platform designed to help you mitigate this risk while enabling better component buying decisions. As part of the Component Searching feature inside the Bill of Materials view for your projects, we’ve added the Price/Risk Matrix and Compare Parts Attributes tools. These tools will enable you to make better component buying decisions based on their risks and attributes.
Normally, when searching for parts, we would see a result list like this if we were trying to find an orange LED:
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While the part numbers, pricing, and descriptions are all useful data, they don’t fully express what you need to know to make a decision about the long-term suitability of each component. The Price/Risk Matrix makes it easy to consume all of the following data in one brief snapshot: market availability, replenishment, life-cycle, component cost, and labor cost while showing the impact of each of these data elements at different volumes of production.
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The matrix tool highlights the best choice at each assembly volume based on the combination of availability, risk, and price. Placing your mouse over each data element shows the details of that factor for further analysis.
Price and availability are meaningless if the component doesn’t meet your specifications. The Attribute Comparison tool shows the most common attributes across all parts and lets you compare the properties of each component to ensure that you’ve selected the right one based on your design specification.
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We love to hear from our customers, so if you have any questions or feedback on these new features drop us a line at support@macrofab.net
About MacroFab
MacroFab offers comprehensive manufacturing solutions, from your smallest prototyping orders to your largest production needs. Our factory network locations are strategically located across North America, ensuring that we have the flexibility to provide capacity when and where you need it most.
Experience the future of EMS manufacturing with our state-of-the-art technology platform and cutting-edge digital supply chain solutions. At MacroFab, we ensure that your electronics are produced faster, more efficiently, and with fewer logistic problems than ever before.
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