How Effective Requirements Management Streamlines Component Procurement

Electronics manufacturers face multiple ongoing challenges impacted by internal teams and various supply chain stakeholders. Component procurement is impacted by a number of product and service partners, including manufacturers, distributors, and parts suppliers.

As a result, procurement is not only a vital department for electronics makers and printed circuit board (PCB) designers but also relies on data and communication for seamless product development and continuous improvement. The evolution of the industry and volatility of inventories globally means that designers should have the tools to fully visualize the supply chain impacts of their work—and vice versa—pertaining to the original set of product requirements.

This is where requirements management shows its true value as an end-to-end practice for any design project. In order to get the most out of a product—i.e. safety, longevity, and quality—parts designers can leverage insight into the wider scope of their decisions. 

The Role of Requirements Management in Component Procurement

Requirements management essentially defines and tracks the changes within a project and the impact they have on procurement, as well as the impact of the supply chain elements on the design process. 

Specification Clarity and Feasibility

There are two angles to consider in component procurement. Firstly, the parts required to achieve product function, and secondly, any acceptable alternatives that could provide comparable capabilities. For some classes of parts, there are dozens of alternatives, but more specialized parts (even simple SMD passives) will have fewer parts that are fully qualified substitutes. Requirements can be created that limit part substitutions only to allowed PNs that have been qualified in testing.

The specification is a staple for buyer and supplier risk management, as it outlines parameters for the main value-creating components. The design team can create specifications that incorporate details such as component height, keepout regions, and packaging details.

Risk Mitigation and Resilience

Despite component sectors recovering from major disruptions to their inventories, early-stage risk identification remains a high priority as relationships between continents impact the costs incurred for international trade. 

Real-time communication with parts suppliers avoids lengthy design reworks resulting from inventory adjustments and component obsolescence. Such an issue has become more critical, and is on the minds of every procurement operative as a result of past disruptions to global inventories. 

Also, companies are still aware that component sourcing is susceptible to global events—present and future—and, therefore, early insight is a major factor in their resilience. Leveraging a tool such as Altium 365 Requirements & Systems Portal empowers those at the beginning of the product life cycle—from the concept phase.  

Lead Times and Cost Optimization

With clear documentation of materials and parts specifications, the aforementioned point about specificity helps PCB designers identify the lead times of certain components. 

While a component’s function is essential to a new design or adaptation, recognizing supply chain defects sooner will uncover any feasibility issues. For example, if the product requires a certain part with variable inventories, this could cause problems for manufacturers and distributors in the value chain. However, requirements management teams can mitigate this by using tools like Octopart’s component search engine in their procurement to bolster their inventories from alternative vendors. 

The same can be said for cost optimization. Earlier collaboration with suppliers based on a real-time product specification feeds the procurement team as it tracks component prices. They can understand the potential contingencies to put in place: risk management and resilience building. 

Both of these supply chain aspects could determine whether bulking purchasing is required, the need for inventory, or if existing stock can be used. 

Common Pitfalls in Electronics Requirements Management

The best performers in the electronics sector are accustomed to detail in all stages of the design and development processes. Not only does a thorough approach reduce the likelihood of defects, but also provides an extensive product history that can support future product updates. 

Some of the common pitfalls in requirements management come from poor traceability, which aids effective communication of changes to product specifications.

PCB designers are known to fall short in the following ways:

• Inadequate or ambiguous requirements: A common issue when designers are unable to clearly define the functional requirements of a new product or rendition. Component tolerance and precise functional specifications for voltage range and thermal performance enhance understanding between all supply chain stakeholders. 
• Overlooking stakeholder input: Not all companies get everyone involved. Without in-depth input from all parties (product managers, engineers, parts suppliers, and manufacturers), the project could fall short on some critical quality elements. 
• Scope creep: Without a clear vision of product changes or updates to existing items, all other stakeholders can quickly become misinformed. 
• Poor version control: Version control is a crucial part of maintaining component and product history. A lack of version control, or poor version control, runs the risk of repeating defects and can make it difficult to revisit past errors. 
• Inconsistent communication: Communication must be simplified; without a proper system, key stakeholders are vulnerable to mishaps. 
• Insufficient compliance: Especially important in the testing phase, compliance elements incorporated in the design phase will better-inform the process to streamline quality assurance while also meeting key performance indicators. 

Tools and Strategies to Streamline Requirements Management

Operating in a digital age, teams no longer have to follow traditional channels to portray product requirements. The ultimate goal for PCB designers is to carry out their work with automated, self-updating requirements that translate to all managers, suppliers, manufacturers, and the like. 

By automating the capture of design data, artificial intelligence can be the best asset for getting new products to market. It’s also important to note that each stakeholder in the design uses different data to make decisions or form proposals, which is where a solution like Altium 365 Requirements & Systems Portal comes in. 

With greater access to design and supply chain data, requirements teams can leverage the tool to simplify complex projects for ease of communication with external parties. Documentation is simplified, which also reduces the number of errors inflicted by stakeholder engagement. By compiling all versions (and partial versions) of circuit board designs, an abundance of insights becomes available.

Expanding on the point of lead times, and considering overall production times, real-time insight and clear product history reduces the number of rework cases, which are frustrating for all. As designers work, automated verifications indicate clear versions, creating a continuous stream of validated responses for the requirements team. 

Interested in AI-powered requirements management and systems engineering? Discover Altium 365 Requirements & Systems Portal today!