Stories from the Source: Mectronx's Steve Lechtenberg on BOM Scaling

James Sweetlove: Hey everyone, this is James from Octopart. Welcome to our series Stories from the Source. Today we have a special guest. This is Stephen Lechtenberg, president and partner of Mectronx. Thanks for coming on the show. Really great to have you here, Steve.

James Sweetlove: Hi, James. Thanks for having me.

James Sweetlove: Anytime. So, just to start off, do you want to tell us a little bit about what you do, what your role is?

Steve Lechtenberg: Absolutely. I'm a partner and president at Mectronx in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Mectronx is an electronics contract manufacturer serving both OEMs and design firms for rapid prototyping and production. A little bit of background on us: the name Mectronx is a little unique. We primarily play off of mechatronics—combining electronics and mechanical assembly. Ultimately, we like to assemble complete product assemblies for OEMs.

James Sweetlove: And do you want to tell us a little bit about the company? Maybe a little bit about when it was co-founded, how long you've been there, and all that sort of thing?

Steve Lechtenberg: Absolutely. We started the company back in 2017. My business partner Angie Graham and I started off doing rapid prototyping, and we've grown into a solid mix of 25% rapid prototyping and 75% production capabilities. Production is mostly on the harsh environment side—products that need to survive in tough environments, typically construction, some agriculture, some marine. We range from HMIs to wearables to sensors—basically anything that needs to survive in environments like IP67, UV exposure, chemical attack, and high vibration. That's our niche.

James Sweetlove: That's awesome. There's quite a bit of variety in there, but you're also quite focused and specialized at the same time. What does a typical day look like for you in your role?

Steve Lechtenberg: Typical days for me—I love being on the process side of things. I'm working with customers on manufacturability, usually on process creation and product durability reviews, and a lot of design for manufacturability. While we don't offer design services here and our customers own all the intellectual property, we help usher them into that IP67 world. If there are tips and tricks we know on how to make a product assemble repeatably, scalably, look flawless, and perform well in the field, that's what we help with. I spend the majority of my day working with customers on developing those processes.

James Sweetlove: Fantastic. The point of the series is we want to hear from real people about the real challenges they face daily. What was the last challenge that made you think there has to be a better way to handle supply chains and BOMs, and how did you solve that?

Steve Lechtenberg: Supply chains are definitely a challenge. There are lots of scars and war wounds out there. A big challenge for us is controlling BOMs—how we move rapidly in the rapid prototyping process. We have multiple customers across industries using different CAD systems. When we get RFQs, we're dealing with different headaches—Altium, PADS, and others. We get a little bit of everything, and finding ways to create processes on a common platform so we can scale effectively across buyers and salespeople to quote efficiently is a real challenge. Then, how do we take that and scale it to manufacturing so it's repeatable, accurate, and at the same quality level as production? Production is a different world with a different mindset. One of our biggest challenges is how to take that production-level quality mentality and transfer it to rapid prototyping. That's where Octopart has stepped up immensely for us on the BOM sourcing side.

James Sweetlove: Thank you. That's very insightful. Lastly, you've been doing this for a while, and the industry changes constantly. For you personally, what mindset shift helped you in your career and overcome some of these challenges?

Steve Lechtenberg: Honestly, creating scalable processes is the biggest factor. We started in 2017 with two people. We can all create processes that work well individually, but growing that and handing it off to more people means finding a repeatable method. On the Octopart side, we can use their BOM management tool to upload any customer's BOM, however different it might be, and it outputs consistent pricing, sourcing, and availability. So we can quote fast, purchase fast, and implement a standard platform across everyone. Octopart also does a fantastic job with part descriptions—better than most companies I've seen. DigiKey, Mouser, Arrow, Avnet, and customers all have their own descriptions, but Octopart has a unified descriptor we can use across platforms. That allows us to create a BOM that goes to the shop floor with the same descriptor every time. Receiving knows the naming will be consistent, and the same goes for SMT programmers, selective solder programmers, and inspectors. It all comes back to making rapid prototyping quality match production and scaling that with a consistent platform.

James Sweetlove: That was fantastic. Great to hear that. If people want to get in touch with you or your company, learn more, or reach out personally, what's the best way?

Steve Lechtenberg: The best way is to reach out on our website. Click on the Contact Us link or submit an RFQ. We're happy to help with anything from rapid prototyping to production for harsh environments.

James Sweetlove: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Steve. It's been great chatting with you, and very insightful.

Steve Lechtenberg: Appreciate it. Thanks, James. Thanks for the opportunity.