在亚马逊上买电子元器件，你能想象么？

正如以这条蜿蜒曲折的河流作为公司名称一样，亚马逊公司(Amazon)正逐渐渗透于更多细分市场领域中。如今，该公司致力于将其降低成本的能力以及价格透明化的特色带入电子产业与制造供应链中。虽然才刚开始，一切还未能完全实现，我却能够想象以后设备供货商可能会在亚马逊www.amazon.com/supplychain网页上竞标组件的情景了！ 我希望你没真的去点选看看，因为这个网址并不存在！没错。亚马逊公司真正推出的是一个称为Amazon Supply的网购平台，这是一个能让买家自行搜寻各种零组件以及工业成品与制造品的场域。电子公司对于这里的许多产品可能没什么兴趣，但在OEM、EMS供货商以及测试与量测等公司的采购经理及有关人员们将可在此发现一些经常下单采购的项目。 亚马逊将Amazon Supply平台的产品分成14大类：液压；气动与配管；材料；实验室与科学；职业健康与安全；紧固件；电动与手动工具；门禁与卫生；动力传输；测试、测量与检测;切 削工具；研磨与修复；物料搬运；办公室；船舰与车辆维修等。每一大类再细分成至少八小类，分别提供数百或数千种产品。例如，紧固件类提供了锚、螺栓、螺 帽、钉、铆、螺丝、螺丝钉、螺栓与垫圈等等，有些甚至是以前你必须跑到特力屋去买的小零件。 这真是让我看了目瞪口呆外加眼花缭乱。亚马逊公司表示，目前该公司的仓库中就有超过五十万种零件，而且“每天都还在增加中！”我只能去想象要能容纳这么庞大零件量的仓库体积该有多大，以及维持每日配送客户订单的物流繁忙情景了。如果您也经营为电子产业供应产品等相关业务，你所要担心的竞争对手可能已经不再是长久以来一直与你展开激烈竞争的厂商了。现在可得注意亚马逊公司了！因为，电子产业的买家们都能在此网购平台的各大类别中仔细浏览搜寻所有的项目，例如材料类中还包括了青铜、陶瓷、 铜、塑料、橡胶以及不锈钢等等，这些材料都透过某种或其它方式应用在目前的高科技设备生产中。 测试、测量与检测类的范围更广。成千上万的 3D 测量、校准、运动、速度与力度、压力与温度等种种相关设备。我不知道这对于电子公司采购部门的人员来说是否具有价值，但很快地，一些业界的买家将深入了解 Amazon Supply 所提供的产品组合，或者开始寻求该公司协助进行搜寻以及采购所需的零件产品。而针对电子采购用户，目前 Amazon Supply 无法提供的，终究也会迅速地增加上去。 Amazon Supply 的价格信息开放给所有的人。这可能是 Amazon supply 想要对于电子供应链造成的一种巅覆性与破坏性的冲击──使价格透明化的想法及其所带来毫无“讨价还价”空间的便利性。在Amazon Supply平台上，你看到的价格就是你需付的价格。当然，针对大宗采购的买家，该公司可能就不会再经由网络，而是以直接协商的方式来为买家提供较好的价格优惠。 然而，我也在此看到了Amazon Supply存在的两个潜在问题。其一，透过网购的方式可能无法确保产品品质。 而这对于电子产业来说，却是极端重要的因素。但我假设亚马逊已经先行采取一些步骤来确保他们在网站上所提供的产品不只是原厂的真品，而且也都价格合理、具竞争力。第二个潜在的问题则与“量”有关。电子产业的买家往往下单购买就是以数千万计的零件，因而必须确保价格的一致性以及可随时供货。但这些问题都不是在交易时的关键问题。 Amazon Supply 应该会针对这些挑战找到圆满的解决方案。 如果亚马逊能够解决这些潜在的问题，电子产业或许会进入另一个组件采购的破坏性阶段。 你会采用Amazon Supply网购平台来采购零件吗？请让我知道。 编译：Susan Hong 本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Amazon Invades the Supply Chain，by Bolaji Ojo, Editor in Chief

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{pagination} Amazon Invades the Supply Chain Bolaji Ojo Like the serpentine river from which it got its name, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is weaving itself into more segments of the economy. Now it has focused on bringing its cost-reduction powers and pricing visibility into the industrial and manufacturing supply chains. Though it hasn't happened yet, I can imagine a future when equipment vendors may submit bids for components on www.amazon.com/supplychain. I hope you didn't try to click on that site. It doesn't exist. Yet. What does exist is a service called Amazon Supply, a venue for buyers to source a wide range of components and finished industrial and manufacturing products. Many of the products are of limited interest to electronic companies, but purchasing managers and their colleagues at OEMs, EMS providers, and test and measurement companies will find some of the items they order occasionally or frequently. The company breaks Amazon Supply products into 14 groups: Hydraulics, Pneumatics & Plumbing; Materials; Lab & Scientific; Occupational Health & Safety; Fasteners; Power & Hand Tools; Janitorial & Sanitation; Power Transmission; Test, Measure & Inspect; Cutting Tools; Abrasives & Finishing; Material Handling; Office; and Fleet & Vehicle Maintenance. Each group has at least eight subgroups, which take you to listings for hundreds or thousands of products. For instance, the Fasteners group offers the anchors, bolts, nuts, pins, rivets, screws, threaded rods, studs, and washers you'd find at your local Home Depot or Lowe's. I was dumbfounded and fascinated. Amazon said it has more than half a million parts in its warehouse with "more added every day!" I can just imagine the size of the warehouse where it keeps all these and the logistics involved in getting them to customers promptly. If you supply products to the electronics industry, the archrival you should be concerned about may no longer be the company you've competed against for decades. It's Amazon. A buyer in the electronics industry can peruse items in the Materials section, for instance, and find bronze, ceramics, copper, plastics, rubber, and stainless steel, all of which are used in one form or another in the production of high-tech equipment. The Test, Measure & Inspect category is even wider -- tens of thousands of dimensional measurement, calibration, motion, speed and force, and pressure and temperature devices. I don't know whether these are of value to folks in the procurement department at electronic companies, but soon some purchasers from the industry will be poring through Amazon's offerings or asking the company directly for help in sourcing these products. What Amazon Supply doesn't have today for the electronic procurement audience, it is highly likely to add eventually. Amazon's pricing information is open to everyone. This is probably one of the more intrusive and disruptive impacts Amazon Supply is likely to have on the electronics supply chain -- the idea of making pricing transparent and furthering the convenience of "no haggle" negotiations. On Amazon Supply, the price you see is the price you pay. Of course, the company may offer a large volume buyer better pricing concessions in direct negotiations, but not through the Website. I see two potential problems with Amazon Supply, though. One is that quality may not be guaranteed. That's a factor of extreme importance to the electronics industry. I am assuming Amazon has taken steps to ensure the products offered on its site are not only genuine but also come with reasonable, competitive, and acceptable warranties. The second potential problem is related to volume. Buyers in the electronics industry often purchase parts in the tens of millions and need to be assured of pricing consistency and part availability. Neither of these issues are deal killers, though. Amazon Supply will likely find satisfactory solutions to the challenges. If Amazon can resolve these potential hurdles, the electronics industry may be entering another disruptive phase in part procurement. Would you use Amazon Supply? Let me know.