I recently stumbled across the phrase ‘we’ve built a world no one wants to maintain’. That got me thinking of all the things that are manufactured and bought by eager customers who, as soon as they have purchased them, have little or no interest in maintaining them. Even if people do want to maintain them, they either lack the skills or resources to do it themselves or discover it is increasingly difficult to find someone who will.
Random observations proved my point: paint peeling off window sills, chipped paving stones, rusting bicycles, cracked phone screens, dented vehicle panels, faulty EV chargers, malfunctioning tills, and on and on.
Personally, I live my life differently. I own as little as I can and keep what I do have maintained as well as possible. Basically, I like fixing things. This requires a significant investment in time and resources, both learning how to maintain things and then applying what I have learned. My 3D printer plays an increasingly important role in this, manufacturing hardware I can no longer source due to obsolescence.
However, it’s not just ‘things’ that need maintaining, it’s processes and services too, including supply chains. So, what is one of the biggest, most complex supply chains the world has ever invented and deployed? Semiconductor design, manufacture and distribution, that’s what.
So, given this sector’s current level of disruption, don’t skip on maintaining your semiconductor supply chain. Whether its personal relationships, distribution agreements, stock levels or even the software you use to manage all this, please make sure its shiny and like new.