Phoenix - Avnet Inc. has launched a fee-for-services online business that bundles design, supply-chain, inventory-optimization information and online exchange services for the North American electronics-manufacturing industry.

Promiere, Avnet's latest foray into the Internet space, provides customers with Web-based tools from one location that are targeted at solving supply-chain problems. Promiere bundles information, services, technology and tools from alliances with several providers including America II, Cadence, i2, the Performance Measurement Group and SpinCircuit.

Stepped rollout

Promiere will be managed by a new services division yet to named by Avnet, and initially will be available to customers in California and Arizona. Earlier this year, Avnet's key competitor, Arrow Electronics Inc., announced a similar suite of Web-based collaborative tools for the supply chain. That business is also centered on a fee-for-services model.

A key concern for Avnet in the formation of Promiere was the need to tie together design and supply-chain information that was usable and easily accessible from one location. "Customers want to get their designs done quickly and get their products to market quickly, but there needed to be some kind of mechanism that would allow engineers to be in a design-for-supply-chain environment," said Greg Frazier, executive vice president of Promiere. Also necessary is giving supply-chain people an early warning as to what is in the pipeline, he added.

This year's inventory crisis contributed to the formation of the new company. "If we have learned one thing from this recent industry downturn, it's that the electronics-manufacturing supply chain is stressed to its limits and in some cases [is] broken," Frazier said. "We need to have the information in place to make intelligent supply-chain decisions during the design process. We also need the ability to mitigate inventory liability after production has ceased." Supply-chain intelligence and services support the entire product-development cycle within the context of a collaborative work environment, Frazier said.

Promiere provides customers with three types of component information-transactional, schematic-symbol and parametric-via several services. The company also hosts and administers several types of exchanges targeted at the corporate level, offers supply-chain trading groups and industry exchanges and provides access to a market exchange.

New services

Initial services include EDA+, which allows customers to access and use information for more than a million parts linked to schematic symbols directly from their EDA environment. The service should increase the speed of a customer's design and increase the viability of a design once it leaves engineering and goes into production, Avnet said.

Other services include BOM Optimizer, which integrates Avnet's transaction data with i2 Technology's VIP database to provide a real-time analysis of component and supplier information from existing parts lists; an online benchmarking service from Performance Measurement Group; and an Inventory Exchange that allows customers to create a range of inventory-management options in their own organization, supply chain or industry exchange. Promiere's open-market exchange is powered by America II.

Most of the services will be available by subscription or on a pay-per-value or per-use basis. Other design-chain and supply-chain services are under development, the company said.

Promiere's alliance with independent distributor America II illustrates how independent distributors have become valued links in the supply chain.

The leading independent distributor will contribute its expertise in excess-inventory management, Avnet said, giving Promiere's customers access to a market to buy and sell parts.

Under the alliance, America II provides the support for Promiere's market exchange, including order processing, inventory management, ISO 9002-certified final inspection and shipping. America II's ISO 9002-certified, EOS/ESD compliant warehousing and logistics center occupies a 200,000-square-foot facility. An additional 80,000-square-foot facility is under construction.

"The ultimate goal is to relieve the customers' inventory burden caused by overforecast, decline in demand and engineering changes," said Jim Magee, president of America II.

Benchmarks

The teaming with Performance Measurement Group, a division of management consultants Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd and McGrath, will deliver an industry-standard benchmarking program that enables suppliers and customers to evaluate their supply-chain performance against median and best-in-class companies worldwide.

As part of the benchmarking program, customers can monitor their performance in various supply-chain processes, such as planning, sourcing, manufacturing and delivering products.

SpinCircuit provides the technology for Promiere's EDA+ and BOM Optimizer. Promiere said the technology will allow it to integrate and deliver supply-chain and manufacturing information on critical components directly into the design and supply-chain environment.

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