Above: Dave Doherty, President of Digi-Key Electronics, in front of the new Product Distribution Center

Last month, Digi-Key Electronics celebrated the ribbon cutting of its Product Distribution Center expansion (PDCe), expanding the company’s headquarters’ footprint by 2.2 million square feet for a combined total of more than 3 million square feet. The new facility allows Digi-Key to pick, pack and ship nearly three times the previous daily average of 27,000 packages.

The new facility is nearly fully automated, the only task that is truly done by hand is the actual picking of parts. The PDCe features two primary conveyor systems to provide redundancy in the case of a breakdown and provide opportunities for future growth. There are over 27 miles of automated conveyor belt in the new facility, and an average order will travel more than 3,200 feet inside the building.

The opening of the facility comes at a time of record growth for the company – Digi-Key wrapped up 2021 growing faster than ever before with a 65% growth rate, and bookings in 2022 are up more than 25% over last year. Since construction began in 2018, Digi-Key has added 1,500 suppliers and 1.5 million part numbers to their inventory.

According to Dave Doherty, President of Digi-Key, last year the company has reached  more than 857,000 customers, including 335,000 new customers across 180 countries. I a message to Techtime, he said that the new 204,400 square meter PDCe, “will dramatically increase the amount of space available for storing existing and new products.

“We have developed an in-house automation system: The most common format in which we ship broken pack quantity is with “cut tape.”  Our process today is approximately 30 picks per hour (PPH). The new proprietary system achieves 300+ picks per hour. We have also developed a way to print key information on the back of the tape, enabling engineers to better organize their components, giving them access to the Digi-Key Traceability portal and the ability to look up additional information in real-time.”

Strong Digital Enhancements

“Our customers want to self-serve, self-quote and easily check availability, and to manage their bill of materials (BOM) and share it with others. Now they can now do all this and more with our myLists tool. Today, Digi-Key’s Marketplace is averaging more than 235,000 visitors a day. Our suppliers continue to leverage this important resource to extend some of their products that don’t naturally fit into their own shop – a good example would be larger, bulkier items like test and measurement equipment that may not make sense to ship twice, once into Digi-Key and then again to the customer.”

Global Fulfillment Experts

“In 2020, we introduced Fulfilled by Digi-Key, our warehouse and logistics center program where we store, pick, pack, and ship our supplier partners’ products globally. What do our Fulfilled by Digi-Key investments look like? Well, we’ve got a couple of CRJ aircraft down the road from our warehouse, ready to fly to Memphis and Louisvillewo of the largest distribution hubs in the United States, every night.

“Our industry moves quickly – don’t get left behind trying to figure out the complexities of selling and shipping products around the world. Focus on what you do best – and leave the high service distribution to us.”

Digi-Key Electronics will bring together innovators and suppliers from across EMEA on Thursday, November 19 at 14.00 p.m. CET for a virtual event focused on enabling new ideas in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The keynote event will feature business updates from president of Digi-Key, Dave Doherty (photo above).

It will also include a market business development update from Ian Wallace, director of EMEA business development; and a roundtable discussion with Wallace, Hermann Reiter, senior director of global strategic program development and EMEA supplier development and Stephane Ratelet, international API champion at Digi-Key, and moderated by Johann Wiesböck, Editor-in-chief for ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS.

“We’re excited to connect with our customers and suppliers in this virtual format, to provide them with updates on our business, as well as focus on the specific European market and how 2020 has changed and shaped the market landscape,” said Ian Wallace. “This year has imposed radical changes on our industry.”

About Digi-Key Electronics

Digi-Key Electronics, headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., USA, is an authorized global, full-service distributor of electronic components, and provides access to unlimited adjacent products and technologies through their online Marketplace. They offer more than 11 million components, with over 2.6 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 1,300 quality name-brand manufacturers.

For more information visit www.digikey.com and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Registration is free. More information: EMEA Virtual Keynote Event

 

Photo above: Digi-Key warehouse in THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minnesota, USA

Digi-Key Electronics announced that it now offers a free eBook on the benefits of implementing Application Programming Interface (API) solutions, and a new ROI calculator to see the return on investment that implementing APIs can deliver. Digi-Key’s APIs provide a complete digital platform to automate and streamline procurement processes while providing real-time product information.

The APIs are free to use, and digitally connect customers’ systems with the Digi-Key system to provide automated, real-time product search, price and availability, product change notifications and more. Digi-Key estimates that customers who have utilized its API have seen an average savings of $50,000-$100,000.

“Speed and access to information and data are critical in all forms of electronic product design and procurement,” said Nathan Pray, senior digital product owner for Digi-Key. “Customers using Digi-Key’s API solutions save time so they can bring products to market faster and more efficiently, which boosts revenue.” An example of the APIs benefit was brought by Fremont, Calif.-based Sonic Manufacturing Technologies.

Sonic automated 50% of its purchasing activity

Sonic provides in-house board layout, prototyping and New Product Introduction through full production in as little as five to 10 days. Every week, Sonic orders about 1 million parts to support its production line. Using Digi-Key’s APIs and cloud-based procurement platform, Sonic has been able to automate 50% of its purchasing activity without adding staff.

Using Digi-Key’s APIs and cloud-based platform, Sonic’s cost to place an order (total landed cost) was reduced from a previous $40 to a current $9. While not every company will achieve 60% savings, even 20 to 30% savings on procurement costs of $400,000 each year will result in significant savings. For more information on Digi-Key’s API solutions, visit: Digi-Key API Solutions resources page.

Global High Service Distributor of ON Semiconductor

Lately, Digi-Key Electronics was named ON Semiconductor’s Global High Service Distributor for 2019. The Top 2019 High Service Distribution Partner Award honors the distributor that led the channel in digital marketing initiatives and sales of ON Semiconductor’s products. Digi-Key was recognized for partnering in inventory management and scoring highly on overall process excellence. Approximately 60 percent of  ON Semiconductor’s business results from distribution sales, and distribution remains the fastest channel to market.

Headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., Digi-Key Electronics is an authorized global distributor of electronic components, offering more than 10 million products, with over 2.2 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 800 manufacturers. Digi-Key also provides online resources: datasheets, articles, EDA and design tools, reference designs, videos and multimedia libraries. Technical support is available 24/7 via email, phone or webchat.

For additional information:  www.digikey.com and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Digi-Key Electronics plans to have interactive and unique technical demonstrations in their booth area, as well as more traditional games and giveaways, during Embedded World 2020 on Feb. 25-27, 2020, in Nuremberg, Germany.The company is also an official sponsor of Student Day on Feb. 27, when 1,000 final-year engineering students from around the world will gather to meet potential employers.

Digi-Key’s demonstrations will feature Digi-Key’s IoT Studio, IoT sensor technology, infrared devices, board level solutions, value-added design tools and augmented reality. Some of the themes will include: Systems and solutions created by the Digi-Key applications engineering team, Project-based solutions that highlight how using the DK IoT Studio has evolved rapid prototyping with both ease and speed of design.

The company will demonstrate many types of solutions, from Scheme-it (Digi-Key’s back-of-the-napkin design editor) to KiCad (the leading open source EDA design environment). The company will show its customer assistance tools, including: TechForum (online community with a direct pipeline to its technical support team), eeWiki (a broad source of technical knowledge driven and supported by Digi-Key’s application engineering team), io (project-based solutions to help designers get a jump start on rapid prototyping) and 24/7 Telephone and chat support.

Visit Digi-Key at Embedded World in Hall 4A, booth 633.

To learn more about Embedded World: https://www.embedded-world.de/en.

Digi-Key Electronics, headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minn., USA, is an authorized global, full-service distributor of electronic components, offering more than 10 million products, with over 2.2 million in stock and available for immediate shipment, from over 800 quality name-brand manufacturers.

Digi-Key also offers a wide variety of online resources such as EDA and design tools, datasheets, reference designs, instructional articles and videos, multimedia libraries, and much more. Technical support is available 24/7 via email, phone and webchat. Additional information and access to Digi-Key’s broad product offering can be found by visiting www.digikey.com and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.