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Parts

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4/22/2003 4:02 PM

What is the best way of procurring parts for small production runs of products? Is it best to go to Mouser, Digi-Key, and so on? Or do you go direct to the manufacturer? Does anybody have any favorite parts suppliers they feel like mentioning?

Obviously to compete you can't compromise on quality. But then again you need to keep costs low to provide a reasonable price. How do you do this?

LFO

4/22/2003 4:31 PM

Try to buy in as large a quantity as you can get away with .
For example, design your product to use as many of the same pot value as possible to possibly get you to a magic 100 or 500 piece price break.

Gerald Weber is a master of this. His Buffulo Fuzz contained all the same pot value for every pot, [ if I remember right], and the resistors on the board were almost all 10 k or 100k. very easy to assemble this way too.

I use Mouser a a lot, but I also get knobs from
MSC industrial supply, some other things from Digi-Key, and have also bought from MCI.
I buy germanium trannies in bulk from Summit Electronics in FLa.

I just got the Newark Catalog - it is so huge I got a headache trying to find some simple things in there!

4/22/2003 8:49 PM

I have to agree with designing using similar value parts through out. It also makes it easier to assemble boards. Use standard components too since if you use any unusual parts it might make it hard to meet a break point or even procuring the part in decent quantities.

The bussinesses you mentioned are setup for production quantities. I use Digi-Key mostly for electronic parts (ICs, LEDs, resistors, caps, etc.) and for hardware and mechanical parts I have another supplier. I would use Mouser but the shipping to Canada is killer (Its not their fault but shipping and customs) and they lack a few parts I need.

Try to find suppliers who can fill as many of your needs as possible. This will make ordering easier and cheaper since you won't have to run around to a bunch of suppliers and pay seperate shipping costs.

Going to a manufacture directly is tough when your ordering parts in small amounts. They don't want to deal with people for small amounts since its not worth their time. They'll direct you to a distributer. The only time you should approach a manufacture directly is to have a custom part made but you'll have to buy in large amounts and pay for tooling/design.

Sometimes you can find surplus parts from assemblers and manufactures of parts that they accidentally ordered too much of or are not using anymore. They maybe willing to sell you the parts at a discount but don't make major design changes for these parts just because you can get a supply cheap. If you do when you run out of parts you could end up in a bind.

Just a few thoughts.

Andrew

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