OP-ED: An Engineer's Loss of Price Visibility

RE: OP-ED: An Engineer's Loss of Price Visibility

e14 Contributor — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:07:05 GMT

There was a recent EE Times article that supports the lack of visibility in the price chain; to the point that some OEMs are citing it as reasons to re-shore their manufacturing. Fine by me! As margins start to shrink due to rising labor costs, I think we'll see more of this scheisty behavior from CMs (assuming it was indeed devious in the first place).

http://cdn.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4400769/OEMs-look-to-cut-number-of-contract-manufacturers?pageNumber=0

RE: OP-ED: An Engineer's Loss of Price Visibility

gervasi — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:49:31 GMT

I have not seen this, but I don't use offshore that much. I'm not against it. There are just a few good local CMs and one PCB fab in the Madison area I can go to who I know and trust. There are also CMs not too far away that have domestic and foreign precense. Usually at the stage I'm involved, time is more important than cost. If they start selling hundreds of thousands, I'm sure they'll go offshore.

Can you ask the CM to explain why it's high? Keep us posted.