I’m William Deng. I run supply chains for automotive diagnostic equipment — sourcing, compliance, logistics and inventory — serving the Australian and New Zealand markets. Before supply chain, I trained as an electronics engineer, and that combination shapes everything on this site.
My Story
Most people in cross-border trade come from a sales background. I came from the workbench. Studying electronics engineering taught me how the products actually work — protocols, interfaces, power, firmware — and that turned out to be the most useful skill in this industry, because the hardest sourcing problems are technical problems wearing a commercial disguise.
Today I manage the supply chain for automotive diagnostic and workshop equipment moving from Chinese manufacturers to distributors and workshops in Australia and New Zealand. That means supplier selection and negotiation in China, product compliance for AU/NZ (including RCM and dangerous goods), international freight, inventory planning, and the unglamorous after-sales work that determines whether a partnership survives its first warranty claim.
I started Silicon Steps to write down what this work teaches — the why, the how, and the mistakes I’ve already paid for so you don’t have to.
What I Work With
Technology
- Automotive diagnostics
- Automotive electronics
- ADAS & EV equipment
Supply Chain
- Global sourcing
- Supplier management
- International logistics
- Inventory planning
Compliance & Ops
- Product compliance & RCM
- Dangerous goods
- AI workflow
- Process optimisation
How I Think
- Why before how. If you don’t understand why a requirement exists, you’ll comply with it badly.
- Field-tested only. I write about what I’ve shipped, audited or broken — not what I’ve read.
- Name the pitfalls. Most sourcing losses are avoidable and repeat across companies. Saying them out loud is the cheapest insurance there is.
- Efficiency compounds. A one-hour process fix beats a one-off discount every time.