Bench Talk

 Life is a marvelous cycle. Starting from birth, a new order must travel through various rites and stages before it can reach its full potential. So many incredible innovations around the world, and in your own home, began as a humble Mouser order. Let’s now take a look at an order that is starting its life right now.

Before an order is born, a design engineer must carefully prepare its essential components. Curating from mouser.com’s vast online catalog, an engineer’s BOM places each power supply, connector and semiconductor and other needed components into a cart. Once the engineer is pleased with how his order looks, he clicks “purchase”, and instantly a new order is born.

Through the miracle of the Internet, or Ma Bell, an idea for an order can instantly travel from anywhere across the globe to Mouser Electronics' huge state-of-the-art facility, located smack dab in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, and central to any place in the U.S. Upon arrival, an order is immediately and efficiently processed. Drawing from its millions upon millions of on-hand components, the separate pieces of the order are processed from automated carousels or stacked shelves. These components are then meticulously counted and QA’d to Mouser’s high quality standards before they begin their voyage along miles of conveyor.

Once a piece of the order has completed its initial halcyon journey, it finds itself in consolidation, among hundreds of other pieces of orders. Though the order may appear confused in its new chaotic surroundings, briefly meeting with components they had not seen before during its life on the shelf, it remains serene knowing that Mouser’s top-notch warehouse staff will join each order with its brothers and sisters before being safely moved to shipping.

Now that the order has fully matured, it is time for it to complete the final part of its journey. In shipping, a full order is carefully encased in a thick layer of bubblewrap. Scientists believe that this exterior provides an extra layer of security against any unforeseen predators. Outside of this softer layer, an order grows a thick exoskeleton of cardboard. This tough hide is the order’s first line of defense against exterior damage, but it is also helpful in letting the order travel in stacked formation.

Once an order has passed through shipping, it is sorted a final time. Using exterior markings, the Mouser conveyor system is able to route each order to the appropriate channel that will help it reach its final destination. With this, the life of an order is complete – a beautiful, efficient process that can be done in as little as 15 minutes. An order’s life may be brief, but it is not in vain. Now that it has passed through the order stage, an order is ready to go through a metamorphosis with its engineer counterpart, transforming it into a new, innovative piece of technology.

Life is a marvelous cycle.

To learn more about the life of an order, follow along with our CEO Glenn Smith and celebrity engineer Grant Imahara as they tour the Mouser Warehouse:

In Remembrance of Grant Imahara

Well known in the engineering community, Imahara has paired his engineering expertise with a Hollywood TV and film career. In addition to his roles on Mythbusters and Battlebots, Imahara is the inventor behind many famous robotic characters - including the Star Wars prequel-era R2-D2, The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson sidekick -Geoff Peterson, the talking robot, and the rhythmic arms on the modern day Energizer Bunny. Up to his untimely and tragic death Grant was Mouser’s beloved spokesperson and brand ambassador who shared Mouser's passion to positively influence and support innovative design.