Today on What The Duck?!, Sarah is joined by Stephen Drummey where they delve into how to successfully onboard customers' new products. If you work for a manufacturer and are struggling to onboard customer projects, especially in Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS), then this episode is for you. Stephen is a buyer at Samina Corporation with seven years of experience onboarding customers with NPI projects. NPI stands for onboarding new customer products, specializing in EMS. Stephen uses that experience to Quick-turn prototypes while also positioning projects for long-term material success and production. Show Highlights Falling into ManufacturingEMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services) Challenges as a Commodities ManagerDesign and Supply Chain Teaming UpBuying at Sanmina NPIs and Why They’re Important Spending Money Without Making MoneyStart with the BOM MOMENTS TO DUCK AROUNDSTEPHEN: BOM – What are Bill of Materials?“You want to go through and figure out, 'Okay, how quickly can I get all this material? Where are my long poles? You know, how many weeks or months could I be waiting before I get material?' And if you do that right off the bat, then there should be no surprises further down the road. You've set expectations right up front. So that's usually where I start, with the longest lead time items, and then kind of work my way down. Or at the same time, also kind of clearing like easy or low-hanging fruits. So you go for the long lead time items, clear the low-hanging fruit, and then you're left with stuff in the middle. And you know, getting your long lead time items sorted out or into a cycle that supports what sort of production schedule you want to have for the finished product.”Stephen: The importance of NPIs“NPI stands for new product introduction. There are usually two categories that NPIs will follow under. You'll either get like a brand-new product that's never been built or they've done Alphas or Betas. And then you also will get kind of the pre-existing designs where maybe you've either designed this product and you've been manufacturing it, and now you're like, "All right, we don't want to do this anymore. Let's outsource the manufacturing aspect of it." You already have an established supply chain and a flow of materials. It's more about making sure that you don't get hung up on internal processes, things get up to speed, and you can move towards production smoothly.” Connect with Stephen and learn what he’s been duckin’ around with:Stephen Drummey |SanminaConnect with Sarah and find out more about what the duck she’s up toLinkedIn |Twitter |SourceDay |SourceDay.comHad fun with the podcast? Leave us a like, share our content, and subscribe! See you soon on the next episode of What The Duck?!