- [Voiceover] Electronics manufacturing,
and global supply chains have become so complex,
that they can no longer support rising demand,
creating the need for new forms of technology,
visibility and asset monitoring.
"Supply Chain Transformed,"
a new series from Digi-Key Electronics,
explores the latest in digital transformation
across the supply chain,
powered by Analog Devices, Molex, and Supply Frame.
In this episode,
we look at how distributors like Digi-Key Electronics
work with leading global suppliers to monitor, organize,
and ship priority components to manufacturers
each and every day.
- Honestly, the name of the game
in the newest facility is accuracy.
The whole system is really driven
and based off of that inventory accuracy.
Anytime something's kind of red flagged or marked decide,
we need to take the time for how the team
dedicated to doing that check,
and making that follow up,
and also those regular accounts
throughout the period of time,
to make sure that something hasn't gone awry,
something hasn't been misplaced.
A lot of the parts we're using for automation
are coming off the shelf and being used
to build the things that we're trying to do
to help automate our own future.
- [Voiceover] With Digi-Key's cutting-edge inventory
and warehouse management,
how did these products get here?
To answer that question,
we follow the supply chain back to its source,
touring Molex's facility
to learn more about how this supplier
is pushing innovation forward
with their next generation connectors.
We met up with Jay Bosserman,
Manager of Operations at Molex,
as he walked us through their printed circuit facility.
- Molex excels at printing very small electronics,
with a number of devices on here,
rather than using a traditional circuit board.
We can take these components and make a functional device,
attach a thin film battery to the back,
and have a tag that is half the size of a credit card
that can perform all the tracking functions
that you're going to need throughout our factory.
- [Voiceover] Automation in the factory space,
machine vision, robotics.
How do these new innovations
facilitate digital transformation?
Peter Stoffel explains how Molex
is taking these processes to the next level.
- Even in our facilities across the world,
we're seeing it's really important
to have high quality.
And that's what something that Molex is known for.
So we're using automation
to ensure that we have the highest possible product quality.
We're using different types of tracking.
So things like lasers, radar, like LIDAR and optics.
A lot of it is on the product quality,
and tracking side,
from when you're making something,
to when you're shipping it.
That's really important to our customers.
- We try to keep this room busy.
There's a lot of automation in here,
and we try to keep it running and productive at all times.
It's a particularly challenging time to do that
with a worldwide shortage
of electronic components right now.
So we are constantly looking for new avenues,
and shipping things in throughout the world,
to try to bring parts in as we can.
We have a robotic soldering station
that does point to point soldering
of through-hole components.
The advantage of this system is,
it runs about the same speed as a an operator would.
But it allows the operator to do other operations
at the same time.
So right now, Griselda is working on testing
while also the robot is soldering parts behind her.
- We think that the future is definitely a machine vision,
and that's a lot of the sensors oriented
towards giving the robot vision.
And people are doing a few different approaches,
but they're using light,
which are also known as LIDAR sensors.
They're using optics,
which are camera types of sensors.
And then they're using radar, which is using sound.
And those are really the three main types of sensors.
And folks in different companies
are using these sensors to give their robots machine vision.
And this is just opening up, I think,
a brand new opportunity for the industry.
We're seeing tons of startups,
and tons of different suppliers, and new customer needs.
And it's really exciting because it plays into the idea
of making it easier for the workforce,
in order to do their day-to-day tasks.
So we've noticed that transition
into a more like innovative, and embrace all the technology,
especially with the pandemic.
I think we've noticed that from internal Molex,
and our willingness to embrace
and adopt new automation technologies.
We've seen that from the startup partnerships that we have.
They've had a lot of customer engagement
through the pandemic, which has been pretty exciting,
especially on the sensor interconnect side,
just because we have the low profile, high speed,
high rugged products.
- I've been doing this for a long time.
I have never seen such a broad range of shortages
that we're facing now.
I've certainly seen it on one or two components
here and there,
but never such a broad issue that faces not just us,
but almost every manufacturer out there.
- We've also seen different smart tags and things
being able to track the environment,
temperature fluctuations,
in order to assess if like the product quality has changed
as it's being transported to the end consumer.
And an easy one to think about
is something like temperature.
It's important and things like medical devices,
or medical supplies, that are shipping out to customers.
Digi-Key has been a partner with Molex,
I think since really the beginning.
And it's exciting,
because Digi-Key is always working with new engineers,
new customers,
that are trying to design products
that are going to change the world.
We both want to help bring new devices
and tech to the market.
And we're really passionate about that.
So it's been an awesome partnership
from pretty much like the beginning.
- It's that migration of inventory,
about making sure your inventory is accurate
as you're bringing it to a new facility
which is much more automated.
And that accuracy matters so much,
in being able to facilitate orders, facilitate workflow,
facilitate who,
and how does different phases of the process.
Beyond that again,
it's it's how do we find better ways to streamline
and better ways to be more accurate from start to finish,
and from, you know, as we're improving processes.
- [Voiceover] Suppliers like Molex,
sit at the foundation of the supply chain.
The introduction of new technologies
that provide visibility and enhanced monitoring
are leading the way forward to reduce bottlenecks,
and increase efficiency for products across every industry.
On our next episode,
we hear from product experts at Analog Devices,
and find out how their latest offerings
combine with other technologies,
to map and track the product's journey
as it travels towards the next destination,
providing a glimpse into the supply chain transformed.