April 18,
2007
Reference
Designs Offer a Quick Time-to-Market
OEMs
are under increasing pressure to get their products to market quickly. In many
cases their design engineering teams were gutted during the last downturn.
Instead of hiring back employees who were laid off during tough times, many
OEMs outsourced their product design – or, they started buying chunks of their
product in the form reference designs. “Manufacturers have to get to market
faster, so they rely on reference designs to get them up and running quicker,”
says Theron Makley, director of engineering at Arrow Electronics Inc. in
Melville, N.Y.
A
reference designs is an assembly of hardware – and sometimes software – that
constitute a portion of an electronic product. The reference design is handy
because all of the components that make up the design have been selected and
tested work well together. In the past, reference designs were often white
papers that explained what components worked together to accomplish
connectivity or power portions of a product. These days, reference designs are
more complex. “They’re not just a white paper,” says Makley. “They are now
hardware reference designs that are built up and proven out. Now, our customers
want to know that the supplier has tested the design and built it up.”
These
days, OEMs are increasingly willing to use reference designs in their products.
Makley notes there are a number of reasons for this increase in interest.
“Customers are more willing to use someone else’s design and use it on their
board, even the hardware, because it’s hard to design complex products,” says
Makley. “Also, the customer knows that these complex designs have been put
together by engineers who really know what their doing.”
Another
reason for the popularity of reference designs is that OEMs no longer feel the
need to produce original engineering. They are more likely now to see their
core competence as marketing and brand building. Design is now viewed as an
expertise that can be purchased from suppliers, distributors and third-party
design firms. “Customers are more willing to accept a reference design in an
outsourced environment,” says Makley. “The environment dictates more
cooperation with outside partners to get the design done.
Because
they are more willing to buy their designs from outside firms, OEMs are also
expecting more from the design work they buy. “The customer is more demanding
of the reference design,” says Makley. “They want to see the design up and
running. They want the supplier to do more of their work for them.”
Makley
notes that reference designs are becoming particularly popular with new
products and new technology. “The most common way customers use reference
designs is to try it in a new product,” says Makley. “They want to see it up
and running. They are expecting the supplier to offer a way to see the new part
in action, including the power supply.”
He
also notes that OEMs are more willing to use an entire reference design as a
solution to their board design. “Customers may just grab a reference design, make
sure it works and plop it on their board,” says Makley. “The reference design
becomes part of the customer’s design.”
In
order to encourage the use of reference designs, Arrow allows customers to try
out designs before purchase. “Part of our program includes a test drive,” says
Makley. “We allow the customer to check out the reference design for 21 days at
no charge. That allows them to check out a new product with no investment.”
Arrow
also provides a range of design support for reference design customers. “Some
of our customers are self-sufficient, but often the customers need help,” says
Makley. “These parts are complex, so we have a program to offer design
support.” Sometimes that support comes in the form of matching up an outside
design firm with the customer. “When we put a reference design in place, we
make sure there is an outside design firm that can work with our customers,”
says Makley. “We find the right partner to match with a reference design.”
Makley
notes that identifying an outside firm that can help with a particular
reference design can save the customer considerable time and trouble. “The
customer could take weeks or months trying to find the right third-party design
house to help them out, so we identify these firms ahead of time.”
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