Field Notes
Perspectives on component distribution, supply chain strategy, and the technology reshaping how electronics get sourced.
Turning Excess Electronic Component Inventory Into Cash
Excess stock loses value quietly every quarter it sits. What your inventory is actually worth, which lots move and which never will, and how to sell without giving away your cost base.
Excess StockSuppliers
Counterfeit Electronic Components: What Actually Catches Them
Counterfeit parts are caught by inspection sequence and test method, not by paperwork. What AS6081 and AS6171 cover, which tests are worth their cost, and how to structure a purchase so the risk sits with the seller.
QualityCounterfeit
How to Source Obsolete Electronic Components Without Getting Burned
A practical guide to finding obsolete and end-of-life components: what EOL actually means, where the remaining stock sits, and how to buy it without inheriting a counterfeit.
ObsolescenceSourcing
Semiconductor Tariffs and the Electronics Supply Chain: What Buyers Should Do
Where the Section 232 semiconductor tariffs stand as of June 2026, why export controls move component prices more than duties do, and the sourcing decisions that hold up regardless of how the policy lands.
GeopoliticsSourcing
Electronic Component Lead Times: How to Read Them and How to Cut Them
Why quoted lead times stop being predictions during a shortage, which part families are actually constrained in 2026, and the levers that reduce a real lead time rather than the number on the quote.
Lead TimesSourcing
Component Allocation Explained: What It Means When a Part Goes on Allocation
What allocation actually is, how manufacturers decide who gets supply, why your distributor's stock number went to zero, and what a buyer can do that actually changes the outcome.
AllocationSourcing
BOM Cost Reduction: Where the Money Actually Is
Cost reduction strategies for electronics manufacturing that survive contact with a real BOM — where the savings concentrate, which levers are worth the qualification effort, and which ones quietly cost more than they save.
Cost ReductionSourcing
Electronic Component Alternatives: How to Find a Substitute You Can Actually Use
Cross-referencing a hard-to-source part: the four grades of alternative, what a datasheet comparison will not tell you, and how to scope the requalification before you commit the schedule to it.
SourcingAlternatives
AS6081 vs AS6171: Which Standard Actually Applies to Your Parts
The two counterfeit-avoidance standards do different jobs — one certifies a distributor, the other specifies the tests. What changed in AS6081 Rev A, and what to ask for on a quote.
QualityCounterfeit
How to Evaluate an Electronic Component Supplier
A practical supplier evaluation framework for electronics sourcing: the certifications that mean something, the questions that separate a trader from a principal, and the checks to run before the first PO.
SourcingQuality
Authorized vs Independent Distribution: When to Use Each
Franchised distributors, independent distributors and brokers are three different businesses with three different risk profiles. What each is good for, and how open-market pricing actually works.
SourcingOpen Market
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