December 2019: Every now and then it happens. A COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) part is not in stock and will not be available for weeks. Sometimes the savings is worth the wait. When it isn't, TMF can help. The captive panel screw assembly, right, is a good case in point. When needed to complete an assembly last year, they were not available. We were quoted a lead time of 40 weeks for a MOQ of 100 units. We required fewer than half.
No COTS? No problem. Enter Team TMF. With our customer’s approval, we produced the captive panel screw assemblies in-house, reducing the lead time from 40 to under 4 weeks at roughly the cost of the MOQ. The added benefit is that our customer now has ability to modify the design of the COTS part as well as the adjoining parts with relative ease.