Skip to content
Tiatra, LLCTiatra, LLC
Tiatra, LLC
Information Technology Solutions for Washington, DC Government Agencies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact
 
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact

How Avnet accelerates its product design process

As a 2023 CIO100 winner, Avnet Inc., the Arizona-based electronic component distributor, has distinguished itself with groundbreaking projects that leverage established and emerging tech to up productivity and efficiency, and to generally do things differently. Avnet’s Design Hub is one example.

According to Max Chan, the company’s CIO, the supply chain and supply chain management has come into stark focus in recent years. In fact, more people have learned about what the supply chain does—or doesn’t do—in light of widespread disruptions caused by the pandemic. This scenario forced a company like Avnet to come up with a solution. 

Max Chan stylized

Max Chan, CIO, Avnet Inc.

Avnet Inc.

Before the Design Hub, Avnet’s engineers had to design solutions for customers in an isolated environment. The typical design process entailed choosing a core component and then working with its team of engineers to decide what goes around it. This didn’t foster an efficient flow of communication. “We quickly realized there was an opportunity for a better, more seamless experience to allow the customer to get more involved in the design process, and give us the chance to offer something unique in the market,” says Chan. “With the Design Hub, Avnet enables engineers to design, get a bill of materials, check prices and availability, compile a quote, and make a purchase all in a single, frictionless workflow.”

Product design made easy

The Design Hub offers thousands of proven reference designs, technical calculators and tools. As such, customers are spoiled for choice when it comes to picking the parts they want to use in their product design. But the portal is more than just a directory of available components. Helping customers find the right components is a must. For Peter Robinson, VP of IT for the Americas and global applications, this is a significant differentiator. “The explosion of the number of components out there means that a lot of customers find it difficult to figure out what components work best together,” he says.

To address this, an interactive whiteboard or canvas was developed where customers can play around with different components and find the best fit for their unique requirements. From here, they can ask Avnet engineers for design help, or immediately place an order for the components on their board and then build a prototype. “By speeding up the design process, customers can easily try out 20 or 30 designs in the same time it would’ve taken to complete just one or two designs,” Robinson adds. “So we’re really accelerating the innovation cycle for our customers, which obviously allows them to create their own designs or use our reference designs.”

For Chan, it comes down to creating a single pane of glass that unifies data and presents customers with a complete view of the product. “In the past, an engineer would go out and talk to the customer and show them how to do something,” he says. “Now, customers are able to access the Design Hub any time. They can leverage the existing database of reference designs, or they can co-create with our engineers online without having to go back and forth too much.”

For Avnet, a major benefit of the Design Hub relates to component suppliers. Once a bill of materials is being finalized, the company can automatically notify the supplier and order the applicable parts. By making it possible for customers to move from the Design Hub with a list of components to one of the brand’s other shopping carts, Avnet made sure they were the distributor of choice. This also enables them to secure preferred pricing, which drives higher sales margins.

From the inside out

According to Robinson, the Design Hub started out as an internal tool. There had long been a discussion among IT leadership around how to extend these capabilities to Avnet’s customers. The idea, he says, was to create a bridge from design to engineering. But what worked effectively for the needs of Avnet’s engineers couldn’t easily be extended to the business’ customers. Understanding they had to create something simple and user-friendly—a self-service tool—they worked with an external partner who helped them bring everything together to create a seamless experience for their customers. Here, he admits that change management was incredibly important. “Making sure our internal engineers were comfortable with the fact that this tool that was just theirs now has a different value proposition was key,” he says. “Where our engineers used to put together entire reference designs for customers, now they’re helping and advising customers and moving into more of a consulting role because the customers can do a lot of the design work themselves.”

Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson, VP of IT for the Americas and global applications, Avnet Inc.

Avnet Inc.

For Robinson, it was critical for the tool to be versatile. It was built in an iframe that could easily be put on other sites and platforms across the Avnet business landscape. This interoperability and integration component was essential because they wanted to allow customers to jump from one Avnet site to another and move a list of components into a shopping cart somewhere else in the business. In total, it took about 12 months to transform the internal resource into the Design Hub their customers use today.

Since the hub was launched, positive customer feedback and adoption has grown exponentially, according to Chan. There have also been a number of collaboration wins. “From a productivity standpoint, making it possible for an engineer to work directly with a customer on a platform like this has driven throughput,” he says. Furthermore, these interactions help Avnet to be more targeted and give the business a better understanding of customer intent. Here, Robinson says that Avnet generates better revenue and greater profits from items where they’re involved in the design because they help customers pick the right components based on their needs. “Additionally, the Design Hub helps us with supply chain planning because we can see what parts are popular and what parts aren’t,” he says. “This really helps address an industry-wide problem of excess inventory. It also allows us to steer customers away from trying to design something using components that won’t be available 12 months from now.”

The experience building the Design Hub has taught Chan that it’s crucial not to look at it as a one-for-one replacement. “We had an internal engineering tool, and if we just put that in the cloud, we would’ve just created the same thing in a different place,” he says. “You have to think of it as a transformation project, as opposed to a lift and shift project.” He also stresses that initiatives like this can’t just be an IT effort. Robinson agrees. “With anything like this,” he says, “it has to be business-led.”

CIO, CIO 100, Data Center Design, Data Engineering, IT Leadership
Read More from This Article: How Avnet accelerates its product design process
Source: News

Category: NewsJuly 14, 2023
Tags: art

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:CIO playbook: Rebalancing your portfolio in a multicloud worldNextNext post:Sustainable IT: A crisis needing leadership and change

Related posts

휴먼컨설팅그룹, HR 솔루션 ‘휴넬’ 업그레이드 발표
May 9, 2025
Epicor expands AI offerings, launches new green initiative
May 9, 2025
MS도 합류··· 구글의 A2A 프로토콜, AI 에이전트 분야의 공용어 될까?
May 9, 2025
오픈AI, 아시아 4국에 데이터 레지던시 도입··· 한국 기업 데이터는 한국 서버에 저장
May 9, 2025
SAS supercharges Viya platform with AI agents, copilots, and synthetic data tools
May 8, 2025
IBM aims to set industry standard for enterprise AI with ITBench SaaS launch
May 8, 2025
Recent Posts
  • 휴먼컨설팅그룹, HR 솔루션 ‘휴넬’ 업그레이드 발표
  • Epicor expands AI offerings, launches new green initiative
  • MS도 합류··· 구글의 A2A 프로토콜, AI 에이전트 분야의 공용어 될까?
  • 오픈AI, 아시아 4국에 데이터 레지던시 도입··· 한국 기업 데이터는 한국 서버에 저장
  • SAS supercharges Viya platform with AI agents, copilots, and synthetic data tools
Recent Comments
    Archives
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    Categories
    • News
    Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    Tiatra LLC.

    Tiatra, LLC, based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, proudly serves federal government agencies, organizations that work with the government and other commercial businesses and organizations. Tiatra specializes in a broad range of information technology (IT) development and management services incorporating solid engineering, attention to client needs, and meeting or exceeding any security parameters required. Our small yet innovative company is structured with a full complement of the necessary technical experts, working with hands-on management, to provide a high level of service and competitive pricing for your systems and engineering requirements.

    Find us on:

    FacebookTwitterLinkedin

    Submitclear

    Tiatra, LLC
    Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.