Q&A with Mouser Electronics

1. How is AI and automation impacting forecasting, pricing and inventory management in your organization? 

We continue to execute on a major, multi-million dollar expansion at our Global Distribution Center in Texas, essentially allowing us to double our distribution capabilities. We’ve integrated advanced warehouse automation to help our teams work smarter, allowing us to serve customers more quickly and efficiently. For example, we’ve installed cutting-edge automation, including EuroSorters, Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs), I-pack machines, pallet auto storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) and other equipment. 

We are leveraging AI across multiple departments to save time, money and ultimately improve the customer experience. In our receiving area, we’ve implemented new OCR technology, which uses automated data extraction to quickly convert text images to a machine-readable format for system entry for the manufacturer name, product name, date code, lot code, etc. Also on Mouser.com, we are improving the online experience for our customers by utilizing various AI tools to optimize part search and enhance our technical resources for our engineering customers.

2. What capital or investment priorities are shaping your company’s growth strategy?

In addition to our newly expanded Distribution Center where we’ve added state-of-the-art automation, Mouser continues to invest in the newest technologies from our manufacturer partners so we, in turn, can deliver the most choices for design engineers and buyers. Having the widest selection of products from over 1,200 manufacturer brands has helped buffer us somewhat against market fluctuations and inflationary pressures and allowed Mouser to grow our customer base to more than 650,000 customers globally. To continue to grow and reach new markets, we are adding new customer service centers this year in India and Indonesia and investing in new staff / talent. We have nearly 4,000 employees globally. 

3. How are customer expectations changing, and how is your company differentiating through services or capabilities? 

Having the newest products in stock and ready to ship allows plenty of choices for our customers. We will continue to stock the widest assortment, while adapting to whatever our customers need us to be, staying nimble and listening to them so we can react quickly to their changing needs. Additionally, on our website, we provide a full menu of services, tools and technical resources to help our customers with their purchases, service needs and design projects. Today’s customers want to be able to go online and get what they need, whether it’s data sheets, technical specs or purchasing tools. Our goal is to provide best-in-class service globally, and we try our best every day to meet this goal.  

4. Where do you see the most promising growth opportunities across end markets or regions? 

The modern world runs on electronic components. It’s a very safe bet that this trend will continue. For the next year, we expect continued growth in the industrial and aerospace / defense sectors, but also a general demand increase relative to the build-out of new data centers globally which is putting pressure on lead-times. Also, we see demand drivers from all types of technology applications including A.I. and data, robotics, IoT, IIoT (industrial IoT), electric / hybrid vehicles and smart technologies. With Industry 6.0 and the trend of onshoring and a more regionally sustainable supply-chain, a new industrial revolution is upon us. As such, we will continue to expand our portfolio of industrial automation suppliers and products. Growth in the online space in industrial automation has really just begun, and our prowess and capabilities online make us a great partner for these suppliers.