元件分销商在电子供应链中处于核心位置，就像交通指挥官一样，快速高效地把元件与服务从供应商送到合同制造商与OEM厂商。他们的作用越来越重要，但有时人们仍然把分销商当成小角色。
可以问一下多年来费力地让供应商和OEM客户为增值服务付费的领先分销商。最终，艾睿电子和安富利等分销商认定，认为宁可放弃利润率较低的业务，不再继续吸收额外的成本。
业内许多最大和最难解决的问题最后都推给了分销商。分销商无数次因对实际需求“缺乏洞察力”、渠道中存在假货、供需失衡等问题而备受指责。在过去的荣衰循环中，这些问题经常困扰产业。为了应对这些问题，分销商投入资金开发或购置增强生产率的解决方案、防伪检测设备和产品寿命周期管理软件。实际上，许多分销商解决供应链问题的能力强于OEM和EMS提供商。
但是，全球分销市场向走向何处？是否存在全球性的分销市场，该领域是否仍然严重依赖地区性支持？EBN/EE Times的最新全球25家最大分销商排名显示，这个问题没有统一答案：分销市场在北美和欧洲已经成熟，而在其它地区则仍然非常分散而且不确定。
北美市场经过激烈并购，最后形成几家大型分销商主导整个产业，规模较小的企业只能捡一些小生意。在日本，元件分销市场仍然隶属于该国的企业集团体制，在这种体制下，日本的领先电子OEM厂商决定哪些分销商发展壮大，哪些分销商永远也摆脱不了夫妻店的地位。
在中国，该市场更加混乱，分销商数以千计，都在拼命建立明显领先的地位。但是即便在中国，领先的西方分销商和台湾大联大(WPG Holdings)也通过利用与外国设备厂商及承包商之间的关系而成为主要角色。显然，中国市场已经具备整合的条件，过去10年大型分销商进入该市场最终将加快这一进程。
我们的报告专注于分销业所面临的许多问题，并记录了市场领先厂商如何悄然果断地深入供应链以增强自己的价值。供应商与设备生产商并不抵触这种趋势，相反却欢迎分销商目前所提供的额外服务。渐渐地，客户也显露出愿意为额外服务付费——只要分销商能够以具体的量化方式明确说明其对于客户的好处。
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完整报告请点击下载PDF文件：
全球25大分销商调查报告（英文版）
编译：Luffy Liu
本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文：Distributors Hone 'Traffic' Control Skills, by Bolaji Ojo
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• 如何制定合理的库存管理策略？WKUesmc
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Distributors Hone 'Traffic' Control Skills
Bolaji Ojo
Component distributors occupy a central position in the electronics supply chain, acting like traffic officers to move parts and services swiftly and efficiently from suppliers to contract manufacturers and OEMs. Their role is increasingly significant, yet distributors sometimes are still treated as bit players.
Just ask the leading companies that struggled for years to get suppliers and OEM customers to pay for value-added services. Eventually, companies such as Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW) and Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT) concluded they would rather give up on lower-margin businesses than continue sucking up the extra costs.
Many of the industry's biggest and most intractable problems end up on distribution’s plate. Too many times, distributors get blamed for the "lack of visibility" into actual demand, the presence of counterfeit parts in the channel, and the supply/demand imbalances that have ravaged the industry in past boom and bust cycles. To combat those problems, distributors have invested in productivity enhancement solutions, counterfeit detection equipment, and product lifecycle management software. In fact, many of them are better positioned to solve supply chain problems than the OEMs and electronics manufacturing service (EMS) providers that buy from them and contract for their services.
But where, exactly, is the distribution market headed on a global basis? Is there even a global distribution market, or is the sector still overwhelmingly dependent on regional patronage? As the latest EBN/EE Times Top 25 Global Distributors ranking shows, the answer is a mixed bag: The distribution market has matured in North America and Europe but remains highly fragmented and uncertain elsewhere.
The North American market has been whittled down through an intense campaign of mergers and acquisitions to a few major players that dominate the sector, leaving their smaller counterparts to scramble for crumbs. In Japan, the components distribution market is still beholden to the country's kereitsu system, under which the nation's leading electronics OEMs decide which distributors thrive and which never rise above mom-and-pop status.
In China, the market is even more chaotic, with distributors numbering in the thousands, all struggling to establish a clear leadership position. Even here, however, the leading Western distributors and Taiwan-based WPG Holdings have emerged as top players by leveraging relationships with foreign equipment vendors and contractors. Obviously, China’s market is ripe for consolidation, and the movement of the major distribution players into the country over the past 10 years will eventually accelerate this push.
In our report, we focus on many of the issues facing the industry and chronicle how the market's leading players are quietly but resolutely inserting themselves deeper into the supply chain to enhance their value propositions. Rather than resent this, suppliers and equipment makers welcome the additional services that distributors now provide. Slowly, too, customers are showing some willingness to pay for the extra offerings -- as long as the distributor can clearly demonstrate the benefit to the customer in a tangible, easily quantifiable way.
Click here to read the report and download a PDF of the Top 25 Global Distributors.
责编：Quentin
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