Mundane resistors out of stock, what's going on?

A layout took a bit longer so after getting burned by a non-stock CAM hold last time I went through the BOM again before we go to fab. 1/3rd of the resistors and caps went out of stock over the last two weeks! They were in stock when I created the BOM a couple of weeks ago. We are talking 2k 1% in 0805 and so on. It's almost like the local supermarket running out of potatoes. Which can happen in Venezuela but not in the US.

Does anyone knows what is going on?

Also, does anyone know how to submit a list with all values, key in 1% and 0805 as default, and then the distributor site comes back with a stocked part at lowest price for each?

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg
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tirsdag den 22. maj 2018 kl. 01.43.49 UTC+2 skrev Joerg:

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Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

Another interesting post linked from that site:

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TL,DR: blame Elon Musk

-- john, KE5FX

Reply to
John Miles, KE5FX

Digikey seems to have stock on all their 0805 1% thickfilms, typically a couple million of each.

If the price quadruples, most of these parts will still be way under 1 cent each.

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The Digikey search will let you show in-stock resistors ordered by price.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
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Reply to
John Larkin

These days I prefer to spec a value range rather than one value. Not always applicable.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

These days I prefer to spec a value range rather than one value. Not always applicable.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Thanks, that explains it.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Price isn't a problem, at least not on this product. What happens is this: I pick resistors from, say, Panasonic, and then these are the exact part number that the assembler uses or the client ECO-releases.

A few weeks later I receive an email that this, that and the other part are unobtanium, with a lengthy list attached. It's no problem finding alternatives but it sure is a hassle, it costs the client and results in schedule slips due to CAM holds.

If there were a brand and 1% series that has a lesser tendency of developing a shortage that would help.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

I can't do that. Also, contract manufacturers and pretty much everyone else want an exact part number, not a value. Later it's customary to ECO-release 2-3 alternate parts but that takes time and usually isn't done or even budgeted in at first design. The CAD files have to change for that as well because an internal part number must be added to the attributes for each part.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

I know many of your projects are in a much more regulated world that I deal with but can you give your assembly house a list of alternative PNs. I looked at TTI and they have well over 1M in stock. 730K from Yageo, another quarter mil from other suppliers.

--
Chisolm 
Republic of Texas
Reply to
Joe Chisolm

Can you give the CM a list of alternate parts to fulfill one BOM line? We usually qualify a few parts and let purchasing buy whatever they prefer.

I would nice to have a parts researcher available to do this sort of thing for us. We're not big enough to have an official components engineer, and it's an interruption to engineering to have to do parts research.

I generally hate parts research.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Yes, I can, though it would cost more time and thus money for the client because my boards usually have a long list of parts. At the client they must ECO-release every single alternative. So if a board has 80 discrete parts values and I'd spec two alternates for each they'd have to write ECOs for 240 parts instead of 80.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Yes, but that's extra work I'd have to bill. Which is what I am grudgingly doing right now, plowing through a long list and every 4th discrete part is now zero stock.

Also, at the client they have to ECO release every single alternate part.

This is where a smart software writer could really shine. It should be easy to automate that search. Just key in "0603 +1% + in_stock" plus teh list of values needed and it should deliver a list sorted by ascending price.

Eagle had something similar where the schematic linked to Newark but it never worked right for me, actually made things worse and cause errors. So I abandoned that after getting egg in the face once.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

We were warned about the upcoming shortage. Had something to do with the increase in automotice usage in China I think...

We've had to scurry and get replacement parts on order for the upcoming future (next 3 years or so)... Replacing normal 1% resistors with 5% vales in some cases worked fine.

boB

Reply to
boB

Octopart and such comes to mind. There are search assistant tools for DK and probably others, they might have that functionality. Look around!

Also enterprise-grade services like Silicon Expert. Don't know how much their subscription is, just that I've used it before. :)

Another option is to get the assemblies made at a full-service CM that has real engineers checking parts availability and cost. I know a guy who's personally responsible for saving millions of dollars; too bad he isn't paid on commission. :^)

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs, LLC 
Electrical Engineering Consultation and Contract Design 
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Reply to
Tim Williams

I started my career in that sort of world. There are so many ways I appreciate the greater efficiency of my current corner of dirt. Thankfully none of that stuff applies to me.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

M

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1%

always applicable.

ciate the greater efficiency of my current corner of dirt. Thankfully none of that stuff applies to me.

Ultimately it's a business model issue. When you're in the hi-rel or mil-sp ec world you just have to suck it up, do what you need to to keep productio n happening & charge accordingly. There aren't many options to assess.

Large stock holding eats a lot of cashflow, and that's toxic to business. A nd there are ongoing costs. And things go obsolete - or they run out sooner than expected. Or they're not obsolete but just never get used. And prices drop. All these are costs.

If the number of different R values can be reduced in a product, the odds o f resistor supply problems stopping production are at least reduced some. A lot of R values in many circuits are not critical.

In my world the less I can specify something the better, in that a greater range of available parts can be used. For a lot of resistors now I just spe cify the R value range and that's it, the assemblers source those and can u se what they want. It makes it cheaper all round, but I'm probably the only one on here that can do that. Other parts have more restrictions of course .

If all else fails I've got some scrap boards you can have :))

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Haven't found anything so far. The Eagle-Newark link came closest but it behaved very unreliably, caused more damage than good for me. IMO a good ideal poorly implemented. I assume Autodesk has canned it by now but not sure.

Well, yeah, you can always pay someone else to do the job manually.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

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Rick C.

Reply to
gnuarm.deletethisbit

On Monday, May 21, 2018 at 7:58:55 PM UTC-4, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wro te:

S.

This doesn't really explain much. They state a some facts, but don't indic ate the real reason why these facts happen. From what I can read between t he lines, demand for resistors (like everything else) has been steadily inc reasing for some years (yes, growth is the general trend in electronics). But for an unexplained reason, the manufacturers have not increased their c apacity. The result is they have not been meeting demand for some time now and lead times have been stretching out until they stopped taking future o rders.

Without a better understanding of why the resistor manufacturers would not grow capacity with demand, we can't know the actual "why" behind the curren t shortage.

Rick C.

Reply to
gnuarm.deletethisbit

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