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Mouser Electronics’ new Melbourne office by Tim Blythman Mouser recently opened a new Australian Customer Service Centre. The launch event was held at Hotel Chadstone while the office is located in the Melbourne suburb of Notting Hill. We attended the launch event to see what this means for their customers (including us!). Y ou might have seen Mouser’s announcement about their new Melbourne Customer Service Centre in the Product Showcase section of the March issue (siliconchip. au/Article/16169). It is the first Mouser Electronics location in Australia or New Zealand. Before that, the nearest location was in Singapore! To celebrate this occasion, an event was held in the Altus East Room at the nearby hotel. Mouser representatives present included staff from the Melbourne Customer Service Centre, as well as other staff responsible for the Asia-Pacific region. Mark Burr-Lonnon, Mouser’s Senior Vice President of Global Service and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) Business was there. Other attendees included representatives from local electronics and engineering firms. We caught up with the folks from Microchip Technology, who are always enthusiastic about their new and upcoming products. One sentiment that was discussed at the event is that we should expect more innovation over the next few years. Engineers now need to spend less time chasing parts and alternatives, as was common over the last few years. That’s certainly a relief! This artist’s impression, based on an aerial photo, shows the past and future expansions of Mouser Electronics’ headquarters and distribution centre in Mansfield, Texas. The new distribution centre nearly doubles the warehouse size; the three-storey building uses the latest robot pickers to pick orders (1000ft2 is 92.9m2). 106 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au A rendering of the robotic storage/ picking system inside Mouser’s expanded Global Distribution Center. Source: https:// youtu.be/ FDCS9qSLVpY We have also noticed a lot more products in stock these days; it’s almost back to the pre-COVID situation. We met several of the Mouser customer service staff who work at the Melbourne Customer Service Centre. Their general message is that they are now able to provide a local presence in the same time zone, language and currency. Previously, the alternative would have been to contact someone in Asia, a few hours behind our time zone. There was no mention that any local stock would be held, but Mouser’s shipping options are generally quite fast, even with most products coming from the USA. Mouser Electronics was founded (as Western Components) 60 years ago, in 1964, by Jerry Mouser. He sold electronic equipment and parts to students in California before moving the company to Mansfield, Texas in 1986. Mark was keen to point out that Mouser is still supplying parts at small-to-medium volume for design, research and development. Mouser continues to focus on engaging with students, makers and engineers. Much of the presentation included the typical slideshows and spreadsheets, but there were some interesting insights. Nearly half of Mouser’s sales in Australia and New Zealand for the last few years has consisted of semiconductors, including devices like embedded hardware and sensors. Facility expansions Mouser Electronics has greatly grown their inventory in the last few The presentation The main presentation at the event was from Senior Vice President Mark Burr-Lonnon. He is originally from the UK, but has spent over 20 years in Texas in the USA, where Mouser Electronics is based. His accent is remarkably like that of an Australian. Mark provided some background on Mouser and its sister and parent companies. Mouser Electronics is a subsidiary of the Berkshire Hathaway group, and Mark joked that he is only a few rungs down the ladder from Warren Buffett! Mouser’s sister company, Braemac, is an Australian-based components distributor. It also has offices in the same location in Notting Hill. siliconchip.com.au A slide showing the hierarchy of staff in Mouser’s new Melbourne office. Australia's electronics magazine October 2024  107 Ideal Bridge Rectifiers Choose from six Ideal Diode Bridge Rectifier kits to build: siliconchip. com.au/Shop/?article=16043 28mm spade (SC6850, $30) Compatible with KBPC3504 10A continuous (20A peak), 72V Connectors: 6.3mm spade lugs, 18mm tall IC1 package: MSOP-12 (SMD) Mosfets: TK6R9P08QM,RQ (DPAK) 21mm square pin (SC6851, $30) Mouser’s part inventory peaked in late 2023 at over two billion items (blue bars). The red bars indicate products they had on order at the time. years; that is good evidence that the parts shortages of recent times have mostly subsided. Mark noted that they will continue to increase their inventory, anticipating that the demand for electronic components will continue to increase in the near future. Another slide highlighted just how many unique products Mouser has in stock from many well-known suppliers. We counted over thirty suppliers in this list, including names like Microchip Technology, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Vishay and Renesas Electronics. Mouser states that they currently have nearly 1.1 million different parts in stock. Mark also discussed Mouser’s ongoing expansion of its headquarters and distribution centre with modern automation technology, including the AutoStore robotic picking system. The distribution centre has nearly doubled in size. It can be seen at in the video at https://youtu.be/ FDCS9qSLVpY The Mouser AutoStore installation has 225,000 bin locations served by 119 robots, and the robots can do both restocking and picking. You can see a YouTube video of the AutoStore robots and system at https://youtu.be/ mQU2BVrnuH4 Another point that was mentioned was their measures against counterfeit components. Mouser wants to ensure that they only sell authentic parts. 108 Silicon Chip Our interview with Mark BurrLonnon in the October 2022 issue (https://siliconchip.au/Article/15514) also covered the accreditation and certifications that Mouser has earned to fulfil those requirements. Networking One of the reasons we had heard for choosing Melbourne for Mouser’s Australian office was the thriving tech community and manufacturing base, including manufacturers and related services. After the main presentation, there was another opportunity to network with other attendees. We spoke to representatives of a few different companies. It was interesting to hear of the diverse engineering and manufacturing companies operating in Melbourne that use Mouser products. Conclusion We are finally seeing a return of in-person events in place of the virtual events that have been occurring over the last few years. We were glad to meet the Australian Mouser team in Melbourne, as well as catch up with some other familiar faces. It’s promising for the electronics industry that Mouser Electronics is taking the opportunity to expand its inventory, operations and distribution centre. We look forward to see what they plan to do next. SC Australia's electronics magazine Compatible with PB1004 10A continuous (20A peak), 72V Connectors: solder pins on a 14mm grid (can be bent to a 13mm grid) IC1 package: MSOP-12 Mosfets: TK6R9P08QM,RQ 5mm pitch SIL (SC6852, $30) Compatible with KBL604 10A continuous (20A peak), 72V Connectors: solder pins at 5mm pitch IC1 package: MSOP-12 Mosfets: TK6R9P08QM,RQ mini SOT-23 (SC6853, $25) Width of W02/W04 2A continuous, 40V Connectors: solder pins 5mm apart at either end IC1 package: MSOP-12 Mosfets: SI2318DS-GE3 (SOT-23) D2PAK standalone (SC6854, $35) 20A continuous, 72V Connectors: 5mm screw terminals at each end IC1 package: MSOP-12 Mosfets: IPB057N06NATMA1 (D2PAK) TO-220 standalone (SC6855, $45) 40A continuous, 72V Connectors: 6.3mm spade lugs, 18mm tall IC1 package: DIP-8 Mosfets: TK5R3E08QM,S1X (TO-220) See our article in the December 2023 issue for more details: siliconchip.au/Article/16043 siliconchip.com.au