Design in some parts of the electronics supply chain is shifting from manufacturers to their distributors, putting pressure on buyers to evaluate their distributors on technical competence as well as product range, price and delivery.

At least that's the experience in many small-to medium-size OEMs, which are experiencing the perfect storm of shrinking in-house design staffs, increasing complexity of the electronics content in their products and increasing demand to get products to market faster.

And it's not just the OEMs that are turning to distributors: Semiconductor suppliers that are focusing on high-end accounts are relying more on their franchised distributors to provide the design help their small- and mid-size customers need to incorporate the devices into their products.

Buyers are finding that design services vary widely.

Larger distributors offer soup-to-nuts menus of design services. Other distributors may offer advice on a limited number of parts. Many distributors have field application engineers (FAEs) who provide technical advice about components. Others offer application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and field programmable gate array (FPGA) design expertise. A few have design centers staffed by engineers who are experts on specific vertical markets. Some large distributors have partnered with design houses to provide complex design services to OEMs.

In all cases, say those in the field, buyers should work with their own companies' engineers to make sure they get several design options from the distributors.

For their part, distributors say OEMs are looking for a total design solution rather than advice on which individual part is a good fit for a certain application.

"For instance, in the past we would have an FAE advise a customer on which 8-bit microcontroller (MCU) makes sense for a motor control application," says David West, vice president, engineering and new business development, Arrow North American Components (NAC) in Denver. However, today the customer would ask the FAE how the motor control application should be approached.

"If you want to save money, you want to look at your system holistically," he says. "We have to start at the system architecture level, not on an individual part."

Distributors say while established electronics OEMs are using design services more, smaller companies are doing so now because of technology changes. An example is lighting.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are being used in more types of equipment and lighting applications, replacing incandescent bulbs and fluorescents. However, many lighting companies are unfamiliar with LEDs and other chips needed to support them.

Some distributors have set up business groups to service that market and are providing design expertise to lighting customers. "Half of our lighting customers do not have engineering resources in lighting," says West. "They came from an era where they had wires and nuts that they connected together and then screwed in a light bulb. Now they have to do their first semiconductor design and they need help."

Besides lighting companies, startups are also frequent users of design services. Startups often have very lean staffs and need design help especially in the selection of parts for a new product design. One example is Black Diamond Advanced Technology, a Chandler, Ariz.-based company that has just started to ship its first product—an ultra portable computer called SwitchBack.

The SwitchBack is a small PC that has desktop functionality. It is designed and built around military specifications to withstand extreme shock, moisture, vibration, and dust. "The device is ruggedized and will work in extremely cold temperatures or the scorching hot temperatures of the Middle East," says Justin Dyster, co-founder and president of the company. Until recently, Dyster also handled purchasing at the startup.

Dyster says Avnet provided a lot of design support as the SwitchBack was being developed.

"We would tell them we need certain functionality in a part and they would make recommendations," he says. Avnet looked at the cost of the parts, how well the parts sell, to what degrees other companies were using the parts and if they had the potential to go end-of-life, he says.

Avnet advised Dyster's company on a wide variety of parts for the SwitchBack including inductors, capacitors, FPGAs, memory chips, hard drives and liquid crystal displays.

Mark Gsand, vice president of marketing for Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas in Phoenix, says startups aren't the only companies that are using design services. More mature OEMs are also turning to distributors for design help.

Gsand says the complexity of designs that use FPGAs and ASICs as well as software is helping drive distributor design services. "Design is becoming so complex, customers are looking for that unbiased technical expertise. Distribution has played that role on the fulfillment side. Now we are seeing that transcend into design," he says.

He adds many OEMs lack design resources in house and can't keep up with software developments. "Sixty percent of designs are driven by the software element. They can't keep up with it so we are playing a large role," says Gsand.

In some cases, design services help attract new customers from industries that had not been served by distribution. One example is the medical industry.

"Medical OEMs had not been distribution customers," says Gsand. Medical OEMs had direct relationships with suppliers because a lot of medical equipment was large and expensive and purchased by large institutions.

"But more often now we are being asked to support medical as there are more types of equipment such as portable glucose meters, heart monitoring equipment and low-level imaging equipment," he says.

Gsand adds that security system manufacturers are also becoming bigger customers for distributors and are looking for design services. "Video surveillance today is everywhere and customers are looking for design solutions."

Arrow's West says demand for design services by established OEMs and startups will continue to grow because cost and time-to-market issues will not go away anytime soon.

"Time-to-market pressures are driving the adoption of distributor design services," says West. "We believe OEMs need to be supported by a combination of FAEs in local markets, backed up by vertical markets and design services capabilities."

Gsand adds that providing such services will be important to distributors because the services generate component sales. "We are not a design house. We are a distributor that has engineering resources. The goal is to sell components," he says.