TTI IP&E, Americas’ SVP product & supplier marketing, Lew LaFornara, explains how investing in inventory, people and logistics stabilizes supply chains and supports growth.
Entering 2025 we were experiencing an inconsistent business environment, with some very strong customer segments such as AI and defense/space, while others such as transportation and industrial were struggling to grow and/or build momentum. Progressing through 2025, we have seen growth across a broader range of customer segments and product categories. Coupled with positive book-to-bill ratios almost across the board, there is some optimism looking forward to 2026.
However, inconsistency still exists with swings in booking activity from segment-to-segment, from month-to-month and among our product categories.
In my opinion, the biggest uncertainty relates to costs and associated relationship to profitability. Yes, tariffs are clearly the source of uncertainty due to the magnitude and many changes that have taken place and a huge contribution to the cost concerns. However, they are not the only contributor. Gold, copper, aluminum, rare earth metals, etc are all contributing to cost increases for electronic components. Labor, transportation/logistics and capital costs are all increasing. Productivity and efficiencies are not optimized, with many supplier operations either underutilized or over capacity and working overtime.
Our focus on optimizing available-to-sell inventory and taking a long-term view of the business allows us to help our customers and suppliers work through the various uncertainties that exist in today’s business environment. We continue to make investments in people, parts and places that are focused on minimizing supply chain risks for our customers.
