How distributors add value today

The component distributor helps the component manufacturer and the buyer of those components by focusing on several areas. One of the areas is to understand and aggregate a broad group of end customer's component requirements and translating that into an inventory stocking position that makes a given component manufacturer's lead times transparent to the end customer. The sales and service resources that a distribution network can provide a manufacturer enable them to engage with more customers in more locations and of great range in size than the manufacturer's direct sales force can accomplish. The multiple suppliers that a distributor carries allow the customer to leverage their time and more efficiently procure goods and services from multiple manufacturers in just one transaction. The component distributor offer short-term financing to an end customer and minimizing bad debt exposure for the component manufacturer. The credit terms from distributors remained widely available and helped keep up the flow of components from manufacturers to customers.