Bradley's Law

The Genesis of “Bradley’s Law”

A company should expect to pay for a specific electronic device – a price commensurate with their Competitiveness within that particular commodity.   This Competitiveness is the measure of how the supply chain sees that company.     Ken Bradley, Founder & CTO Lytica Inc. When Ken Bradley founded Lytica in 2005 as a consultancy practice, his primary areas of focus were setting up supply chains and price negotiations for Electronic OEMs. From his varied background within Nortel Networks (Silicon Process Engineer, Operations Manager,...

March 21, 2017By Component Pricing, Cost, Overhead Costs, Product Cost2 CommentsRead more...

“We supply the science – you supply the art”

In October, I attended the i2030 National Manufacturing Summit in Ottawa Canada, co-hosted by industry groups the CME (Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters) and the CMC (Canadian Manufacturing Coalition). The agenda was geared towards manufacturers and, considering our customers worldwide are comprised of OEM, EMS providers and ODMs, it was certainly topical and relevant to Lytica. Many of the discussion threads touched on the 4th industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 for short.  For the purposes of a refresher and setting the context,  the...

November 14, 2016By Component Pricing, Corporate, Cost, Lifecycle Management, Other, Product Cost, Risk, Security of Supply, Sourcing, Strategy0 CommentsRead more...

Benchmarking – Tried & True. What about your component spend?

Over the 4 years since our firm launched our electronic component benchmarking tool set, we’ve concluded there are only 4 reasons that companies don’t benchmark their electronic component spend for competitiveness. Okay, there might only be two reasons? In their 15th release of Management Tools and Trends – 2015, Bain and Company tabulated opinions of Supply Chain professionals concerning 25 management tools for usage level and satisfaction. Benchmarking tied for 2nd as the most pervasive tool. Further, over a 10 year...

March 15, 2016By Component Pricing, Cost0 CommentsRead more...

Wanted: Lean and Benchmarking ‘Sensei’

To companies focused on operational excellence, Lean Principles and the discipline of Benchmarking are considered two complimentary and indispensable tools toward achieving world class performance. Getting Lean is all about identifying and getting rid of waste, where waste is defined as any non- value adding step that customers are unwilling to pay for. Benchmarking is a process of continuous improvement by comparing processes either internally, against industry peers or against other industries. From these simple definitions, it is easily understood why...

June 11, 2015By Component Pricing, Corporate, Cost, Strategy, Uncatagorized0 CommentsRead more...

Disregard Price Benchmarking at Your Own Risk

Not benchmarking your electronic component spend? If so, continue to disregard this critical diagnostic at your own risk. Quick. Name 1 inherently deflationary commodity. A commodity that, apart from the ebbs and flows due to supply and demand, always gets cheaper. The broad answer is electronics; more specifically - an integrated circuit (IC). This month marks the 50th anniversary of Moore’s law, and with this blog I want to cover its implications to cost savings. Savings that are glaringly available...

April 20, 2015By Component Pricing, Cost0 CommentsRead more...