Company:N.F. Smith & Associates
N.F. Smith & Associates, also known as Smith, or Smith & Associates, is an independent distributor of electronic components and semiconductors headquartered in Houston, Texas .
History
In 1984, brothers Robert and Leland Ackerley founded Smith, which is now the largest independent distributor of electronic components and ranks 6th among all global distributors,[1] in the semiconductor and electronic components industry.
The 1990s saw marked growth for the company. In 1992, Smith's annual sales were $30 million; by 1998, they had topped $470 million due to the company's expansion of its business into new regions, industries, and service offerings. In 1997, the company moved into its new 60,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Houston, followed by the opening of its first major international office in Hong Kong that same year. Smith established a European presence with the opening of its Amsterdam office in 1999.
In 2000, the company completed construction of a 15,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Houston to expand its ability to handle OEM and CEM consignment and excess inventories. Smith opened offices in Seoul, Silicon Valley, and Guadalajara in 2000, followed by office openings in New York in 2003 and Shanghai in 2004.
In 2010, the company completed construction of an enhanced, in-house, anti-counterfeit laboratory at its headquarters. Smith relocated the laboratory to a 57,199 sq. ft. operational facility in November 2014.
The company opened its 9th physical trading office in Shenzhen, China in 2008, adding Taipei in 2011, Austin in 2013, Penang in 2014, Bangalore in 2015, and Cluj-Napoca,[2] Munich, and Beijing in 2017, Berlin in 2021, and London in 2022.[3]
Products and Sourcing
Smith sources and distributes active, passive, and electromechanical IC components, as well as computer products and peripherals such as HDDs, processors, memory modules, video cards, CPUs - both obsolete and in-production parts. It serves customers in a broad range of industries, including consumer electronics, enterprise electronics, server hardware, automotive, telecommunications, medical, oil and gas, energy, and aeronautics and defense.
Services
Over time, the company expanded on the shortage sourcing that characterized its earliest business model.[4] Services offered include inventory management programs such as VMI or EOL models, third-party purchasing, excess inventory management, IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and secure data erasure, HDD & SSD services, rework, component recovery, reverse logistics, and kitting.
Quality
Smith's quality practices include strict vendor evaluation and approval, followed by formal visual inspection of incoming product from the outer packaging inward. Parts that pass visual inspection may move on to the next level of inspection.
Smith is the only distributor to have four in-house functional and authenticity testing labs. These labs are located in Houston, Texas, Haarlem, Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Each location provides a comprehensive suite of inspection, testing, and storage services for electronic components.
The company uses its in-house lab resources to confirm product quality, origin, and conformity. The company's testing resources include decapsulation, chemical testing, x-ray testing, x-ray fluorescence, microscopic inspection, solderability testing, counterfeit IC testing, C-SAM acoustic microscopic inspection, bond/shear strength testing, and functionality testing for a range of components.
Sustainability
Since 2011, Smith has been “committed to work toward becoming a climate neutral, zero waste-to-landfill distributor.”[5]
Smith began placing a heavy corporate emphasis on sustainability in 2008, when an ISO 14001 audit revealed deficiencies in the company's environmental program. Smith used these results as a catalyst to undertake improvements, including switching out lighting, using only 100% recycled packaging for shipments, and focusing on reducing energy consumption.[5]
On April 8, 2012, Smith was named Overall Winner: Greatest Implementation of Green Building Innovations in the City of Houston's 2011 Green Office Challenge, the nation's largest Green Office Challenge for 2011.[6] Smith's headquarters have been certified to ISO 14001 since 2005 and to R2 since 2015.
References
- ↑ "Top 50 Electronic Component Distributors 2023". 12 May 2023. https://www.supplychainconnect.com/rankings-research/whitepaper/21264664/top-50-electronics-distributors-2023-6-smith.
- ↑ "Houston Chronicle: Houston company opens office in 'Silicon Valley of Europe'". 26 January 2017. http://www.chron.com/business/bizfeed/article/Houston-company-opens-office-in-Silicon-Valley-10885560.php.
- ↑ "Locations - Smith". https://smithweb.com/company/locations/.
- ↑ Dahlgren, Dennis (March 5, 2012). "Smith & Associates Ready to Take on Europe". Evertiq. http://evertiq.com/news/21597. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ackerley, Robert (April 25, 2012). "City and Corporate Sustainability Burn Bright in Houston, America's Energy Hub". National Geographic News Watch. http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/25/city-and-corporate-sustainability-burn-bright-in-houston-americas-energy-hub/. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
- ↑ City of Houston. "Houston Mayor Parker Announces Green Office Challenge Winners". ICLEI USA Sustainable Cities and Counties Blog. http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/houston-mayor-parker-announces-green-office-challenge-winners. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
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