Questions to Ask Electronics Suppliers at a Trade Show

A trade show puts hundreds of suppliers within walking distance, which is exactly why it is easy to come home with a bag of brochures and no usable information. The aim at a booth is not to approve anyone. It is to find out, in a few minutes, whether a company deserves the time a proper evaluation takes, and to leave with a named person and a list of evidence they have agreed to send.

Build the shortlist before you travel

Start with the exhibitor list. forUdyog's expo exhibitors directory lets you browse companies by show, and the individual show pages, such as electronica India Bengaluru 2027 for components and production equipment, ELECRAMA 2027 for electrical and power equipment and EV India Expo 2027 for electric-vehicle supply chains, carry the dates, venue and organiser details. Always confirm those on the organiser's own site before booking travel.

For each company worth a visit, write a one-line hypothesis, so you know what you are testing:

"Possible Indian source for a 24-way wire harness, 2,000 units a month, crimp-height checks and 100 per cent continuity test required."

Then prepare a single page you can show, not a file you hand over:

• the product, its market and its development stage;
• first-order and annual volumes, as ranges;
• the standards and approvals that are non-negotiable;
• the two or three biggest quality or process risks;
• the kind of supplier you want: maker, assembler, distributor or design partner;
• three knockout criteria that end the conversation politely if they are not met.

Do not take confidential drawings, BOMs or firmware. If a supplier needs more to judge feasibility, that is a follow-up step under an NDA and through a controlled channel.

Spend twelve minutes, in this order

Ask for examples, numbers and descriptions of how things are done. "Do you have good quality?" always gets a yes. "Walk me through what happens when a lot fails your final inspection" tells you whether there is a system.

Find out who you are talking to

The company name on the booth fascia is not always the company that will quote, invoice or ship. Ask:

• Are you the manufacturer, an authorised distributor, an independent stockist, a sales representative or a trading company?
• Which legal entity would issue the quotation and the tax invoice?
• Which site would make or ship our item, and which steps are subcontracted?
• Who owns the designs and tooling for the products on display?

Write down the legal name, the site address, the email domain and the booth number. A good first question for any manufacturer is simply: "Which of these processes happen at your own site, and which site would handle our job?"

Test fit with questions that invite limits

For a manufacturer or assembler:

• Which of our requirements are standard for you, which are modified, and which would be new?
• Show us a comparable product. What is the hardest step in making it?
• What tolerances do you hold routinely, rather than on a good day?
• Which equipment, fixture and test controls the characteristic we care about most?
• What would make you turn this job down?

A credible supplier talks about limits and asks you for missing information. One that agrees to every process, volume and certificate without asking a single question needs closer scrutiny.

For a component distributor, swap the process questions for channel questions:

• Which manufacturer authorises you for this line, and does that cover India?
• Is the stock you are quoting bought under that agreement, and where is it held?
• Is it in factory-sealed packaging, and what lot, date-code and certificate of conformance documents ship with it?
• Does the manufacturer's warranty pass through to us?

Under SAE AS6496, as ECIA's summary describes it, an authorised distributor must tell you in writing at quotation if it is not authorised for an item. "We distribute Brand X" is a starting point, not an answer.

Ask for evidence on quality and compliance

Useful quality questions:

• Which certificate covers this site and this activity?
• What were your on-time delivery and defect rates last quarter, and how are they measured?
• How do you control ESD, moisture-sensitive parts and calibration?
• How is incoming material traced to a finished serial number or batch?
• Tell us about a recent quality escape and what you changed.
• Can we see a sample inspection report and certificate pack?

A photograph of a certificate on the booth wall proves nothing. Note the certificate number and the certification body, and check them afterwards on IAF CertSearch, which shows whether a certificate is active, suspended, withdrawn or expired.

On compliance, ask by model and market: which approvals apply to this exact model and factory, who holds the certificate, what changes trigger retesting or notice to customers, and which Indian obligations such as BIS registration or EPR remain with you as the importer or brand owner. For BIS-marked products, the licence can be checked with the "Verify Licence Details" function in the BIS Care app. A certificate for a related model or another factory may not cover what you would buy.

Make capacity and lead-time answers measurable

• What is your quoted lead time today, and what is it actually running at?
• When does the clock start: drawing approval, material receipt or deposit?
• Which operation is the bottleneck, and how much capacity is free in the month we need?
• What are the MOQ, standard pack and economic order quantity?
• Are sample, tooling and production lead times different?
• What share of orders shipped on the first promised date last quarter?
• What happens if our demand doubles?

Probe lifecycle, resilience and data

Ask how product-change and end-of-life notices reach customers and how much notice is contractual, which critical inputs are single-source, and whether an alternate site is already qualified. IEC 62402:2019 treats obsolescence management as an activity across every phase of a product's life, so a supplier that starts thinking about it only after a discontinuance notice is late.

If the supplier would hold your designs, firmware or programming keys, ask who can access them, whether multi-factor authentication is enforced, how access is revoked, whether subcontractors see the data, and what happens to files when the relationship ends. NIST's SP 1326 due-diligence guide groups these questions under ownership and control, provenance, resilience, foundational cyber practices and supply-chain tiers; the five headings are a handy prompt card even for a non-IT supplier.

Finish with the commercial basics: is the price budgetary or firm, for which quantity, under which Incoterm, and what tooling, test and cancellation charges sit outside the unit price. Do not negotiate a target price before scope and quality are understood.

The questions that waste booth time are the generic ones: can you supply electronics, is your quality good, can you deliver fast, are you certified, do you distribute this brand. Each has a sharper version in the sections above, and the sharper version is the one that tells you something.

Write it down before the next booth

Use one short form for every conversation:

• Legal entity, contact name and email domain
• Supplier type and the site that would do the work
• Products or processes discussed
• Certificates and authorisations claimed, with numbers
• Indicative MOQ, lead time and capacity
• The biggest gap or risk you heard
• Evidence promised, by whom and by when
• Your decision: advance, hold for evidence, or drop

Score the same day while memory is fresh, with a rough 100-point screen: technical fit 20, source and provenance 15, quality and traceability 15, capacity and delivery 15, compliance 10, commercial fit 10, resilience 10 and responsiveness 5. A high score earns the next step, nothing more. Record why you dropped anyone so a colleague does not chase the same company next year.

Label photographs as you take them, and only photograph products or displays with permission.

Follow up within two working days

Send each shortlisted supplier a short recap: your requirement in a paragraph, the NDA or data-sharing step, the evidence list, any sample or feasibility request, the date and format for a formal quotation, and who owns the next call. Then check what you were told: the GSTIN on the GST Portal, which shows the legal name, constitution, principal place of business and registration status; the certificates on IAF CertSearch; authorisations with the manufacturer. Registration confirms identity, not capability.

From there the supplier enters your normal process: the checks in the pre-PO due diligence guide, then a matched request built along the lines of the RFQ preparation guide, so every candidate from the show answers the same questions. Rank them on the evidence, not on booth size or the quality of the brochure.