Healthcare OEMs: A Supply Chain Problem Is Everyone’s Problem

By Logan Wamsley

It doesn’t take much to understand that medical equipment is wildly crucial in our world today. But the prolonged lifecycles of this equipment necessitate a need for regular updates and adherence to long-term service commitments – which are expected to be handled promptly. When a machine breaks, time is of the essence. Our OEM customers…

Reactive vs. Proactive Obsolescence Management Strategies

By Logan Wamsley

While all obsolescence management strategies have the same goal of ensuring the lifecycles of OEM products despite any unforeseeable disruptions, they are not all alike. Now, just because each strategy may be different in form, that does not mean they differ in terms of importance. It is unwise to consider any such strategy as “one-size-fits-all,”…

The Dangerous EOL Assumption Regarding Electronic Components

By Logan Wamsley

The EOL designation granted to an electronic component approaching obsolescence used to have a certain meaning to OEMs. It indicated that the component was ending its natural buyer cycle, that customer demand had slipped beyond the point of being profitable, and that it was time for the supplier to move on. It was a designation…

Don’t Be a Salmon, Embrace Last Time Buys

By Logan Wamsley

Salmon are fascinating creatures in that that they are created with an inherent instinct to defy the natural order. In a world where common sense and logic nudge all forms of life toward the path of least resistance, salmon insist on swimming upstream against the current, willfully ignorant of the fact that that just turning…

The Expanding Role of Contract Manufacturers, and Their Limits

By Logan Wamsley

There was a time in the not-so-distant past where contract manufacturers (CMs) fulfilled a singular role in an OEM supply chain: product assembly. It’s a vital step in the manufacturing process, to be sure, but it was also a role kept isolated from the other processes necessary to fully realize a concept from design to…

The Flaw in Your Working Capital Management Strategy

By Logan Wamsley

Each year that passes in the world of manufacturing seems to operate around a particular theme. In 2018, this theme appears to be working capital management, with supply chain executives making it a priority to squeeze the cash flow cycle as much as possible as the predictions regarding interest rates and inflation continue to look…