Component shortages shouldn’t come as a surprise
If there is one thing I’ve learned from working in the electronics industry for four decades it’s that no matter how hard one tries you can’t escape the ‘cycle’. The frequency and amplitude might vary but as day follows night, demand rises, capacity tightens, lead times extend and suddenly the component that represented a tiny fraction of a product’s BoM becomes the reason it can’t be built.
What one can do is be prepared. AI infrastructure and data centres are consuming enormous quantities of semiconductors, memory, power products, passives and interconnects. At the same time, electrification, defence, automotive and medical markets remain strong, while geopolitical uncertainty, tariffs and concentrated manufacturing capacity add further pressure.
So what should purchasing teams be doing now?
For this report, we asked senior figures from across the electronic component supply chain a simple question: as demand once again begins to outpace supply, what should purchasing teams do to make their supply chains more resilient?
Their answers reveal a striking degree of agreement.
Resilience is not something that can be bought when allocation starts. It has to be designed into the supply chain beforehand. That means better forecasting and visibility, qualified alternative components, multiple sources, intelligent inventory strategies, lifecycle and obsolescence planning, digital tools and, perhaps most importantly, strong relationships with manufacturers and authorised distributors.
The message is clear: the next supply-chain crisis may be impossible to prevent, but its impact on your business is not inevitable.
