“Something as small as a single tiny electronic component that suddenly becomes unavailable from one day to the next can cause enormous economic damage,” reports Evertiq. “This is all the more alarming as the list of potential weak points in supply chains has been growing longer and longer, and not just since the start of the Corona pandemic.”
Experts from the COGD (Component Obsolescence Group Deutschland) estimate that commodities, materials, software, electronic components, and other replacement parts discontinued at short notice or no longer available on the open market for other reasons are already causing additional costs for industrial companies. In Germany for example, the additional cost are estimated to be in the range of several billion euros per year.
This is a development that the non-profit industry organisation has been following with “great concern”. Quite a number of manufacturers from sectors such as automotive, aerospace, military, rail, power plant, medical and automation technology – who often need spare parts for their equipment and systems for decades – had actually considered themselves to be in a good position in terms of supply security until the start of the Corona pandemic. But the last three years with their many disruptive factors acting in parallel on the global supply chains have taught quite a few of these companies that this was probably not the case.
“Unfortunately, some mistakes and omissions of the past only become apparent in times of crisis. This is not necessarily tragic, as long as you learn from them. Unfortunately, the sum of potential disruptive factors has never been as high as it is today. Particularly in a country like Germany, which is poor in raw materials and is currently completely dependent on foreign suppliers in many areas, it should have long been standard practice to continuously check all suppliers and supply chains for potential risks of failure and to take appropriate active and reactive precautionary measures.”
The Chairman continues to state that this – unfortunately – is still not the case. He even goes as far as stating that in just a few years’ time, hardly any industrial company will be able to get by without strategic obsolescence management.
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