Sourcing Electronic Parts in an Era of Supply Chain Uncertainty

When supply chain interruptions began to happen on a regular basis early last year, many in the electronics industry thought that the solution to their supply chain troubles was just to over-order, double order, or look overseas as a last resort. But as we’ve quickly discovered, these supply chain disruptions were only the beginning of a whole host of problems related to parts availability and supply inconsistencies. 

To start, we found out that locating a part today doesn’t guarantee its availability six months down the road. Or even the next week. Or even the next day. A part could quickly cease being manufactured or have barely any parts available for the foreseeable future due to supply chain disruptions.

Understanding Part History: The Future Is In The Past

But with parts availability and the need to understand trends, it can even get more complicated than that. Seeing a component’s current inventory doesn’t give a clear picture as to whether or not it’ll be available in the future. However, knowing its past stock availability can help buyers make projections on its future availability. For instance, by having the inventory history of a part, a buyer can decide whether the part would be best for one-off builds due to irregular availability, or could choose a part they know they can rely on for repeated builds due to trends showing it is consistently restocked. 

Another scenario might be if a part tends to sell out almost immediately when restocked. A buyer could determine if the part’s limited window of availability is worth the risk of relying on it for repeated builds, or if it would be better to look for alternative parts that are more consistently available.

Further Complications to Part Availability

In some cases, a buyer needs to look at both the inventory of a part itself as well as what non-authorized resellers have in stock. In doing so, they can determine if the non-authorized resellers are targeting the part and buying up everything they can get their hands on as soon as it becomes available to resell at an insane markup. In some cases, these parts are resold at up to 20 times the original price! Being able to see the inventory history alongside the non-authorized reseller prices helps buyers see when something is too popular for its own good and so they can select an alternative part instead. 

Knowing a part’s inventory history and availability trends can help you make smart sourcing decisions. That’s why we’re so excited at Octopart to announce our new feature designed to help you view part-level stock trends over time. 

Using Inventory History to Navigate Supply Chain Disruptions

Inventory History is now available on Octopart detail pages (PDPs.) With this feature, you can view up to one year of part-level history, allowing you to see how often a part is purchased, if there’s a sufficient supply of that part, and when restocking occurs and how often. 

For example, by knowing a part’s history, you can get an idea of how often distributors are restocking by looking at spikes in inventory data. If a buyer’s schedule demands that they produce new runs every 2 months, they're able to get an idea of how often they’ll need to restock inventory. If a part sells pretty quickly after restocking based on historical data, a buyer can choose to either purchase that part immediately upon restock or just look for an alternate part altogether. 

With supply chain issues having reshaped the industry, parts are being sourced and purchased before designs are even started. Currently, many companies are purchasing parts this way because if they wait too long, the parts they need could quickly become out of stock. However, with Inventory History, instead of making mass purchases before design, these companies can easily see the rate at which stocks are typically depleted, how often parts are restocked, and what time of year stock changes occur without making a blind and uninformed investment in parts prior to the design stage. 

Powered by Nexar Spectra, the Inventory History tool on Octopart.com empowers parts buyers to make informed decisions that are cost-effective and time-saving. To check out inventory history, start your part search today. To learn more about additional data offerings, check out Nexar Spectra.