AI Gives You the Power of an Entire Supply-Chain Team

Navigating the volatile electronics supply chain is an unfortunate reality that all hardware designers eventually face. This in itself could be a full-time job, and in a lot of the larger companies, it is.

But not every hardware designer has the luxury of an entire supply chain team dedicated solely to this task. If you’re like most designers, sorting out component availability, lifetime, and pricing is just another task on your plate. It pulls you away from the fun stuff: designing!

At Flux, we want to ensure that your designs are functional and manufacturable—and that means making it easier to navigate the supply chain. That’s why we added an end-of-life (EoL) and not recommended for new designs (NRND) warning feature that automatically flags if components are at or near obsolescence. We’ve also given Copilot access to Flux’s live pricing and availability tools so that it can do the supply chain and cost analyses for you.

Identifying EOL and NRND Components Early

When you’re creating a design that will eventually be manufactured, it pays to start off on the right foot. From the very get-go, it’s imperative that you design with components that are sourceable and will remain in production for the distant future.

With these warnings presented before you select a component, you’ll catch issues earlier in the process and avoid future supply-chain challenges before they even happen. And it doesn’t take a team to do it. Let Copilot and the Flux schematic editor do the heavy lifting for you—all under the roof of one centralized design tool.

Optimizing BOM Cost with AI

Now you’ve got a design consisting of sourceable components with long-term viability. When looking toward manufacturing, you also want to cost-optimize your design to make it as affordable as possible.

With Copilot’s access to Flux’s real-time availability and pricing tools, cost optimization becomes a breeze. Simply ask Copilot,

“@copilot, use real-time pricing data to help me find a more affordable alternate for U1”.

Copilot will then scour the internet and the Flux library, searching for the best component replacements that save you money without sacrificing your original design’s functionality. You no longer have to do all the manual work yourself. No more need to open a dozen tabs, clicking between datasheets and suppliers to find the best alternates. Instead, Copilot automates the whole process for you so that you can feel confident you have the most cost-efficient design possible.

Automating BOM Supply Chain Analysis

Once your product is manufactured and on the market, the Engineering and Operations teams are still responsible for sustaining the project. That means monitoring changes in component availability and pricing to keep your production line up and running.

With Flux’s supply chain tools, this is all done for you.

If a component in an existing design is facing obsolescence, the warning indicators will appear directly on the schematic editor for everyone on your team to clearly see. Or, maybe you want to do an occasional check of your design just to be safe. In that case, you can prompt Copilot to do a BoM analysis for you by asking,

“@copilot, please analyze my bill-of-materials to check if any of my components have reach end-of-life, or if they’re at risk to do so”.

Like an entire supply-chain team at your disposal, Copilot will thoroughly compare your design against data from the world’s leading suppliers to ensure that all of your components are viable options for production. If not, Copilot will alert you accordingly, and even help you find alternates with better long-term prospects.

Simplifying Electronics Supply Chain Management

We want to make hardware less hard, and that means we need to give you, the designers, fewer things to worry about. With End of Life Warning Indicators and Copilot’s ability to access and analyze real-time Availability & Pricing information, we’re giving designers the power of an entire supply-chain at their fingertips. Want to experience how Copilot can ensure your design is ready for manufacturing? Start a design on Flux today!