The impact of Covid-19 on electronic component suppliers has to be understood within the context of global manufacturing’s reliance on Asia, as highlighted in this EPN article and some research into the problem by Resilinc (image shown Copyright Resilnic).
Parts shortages, workforce outages, transportation issues, under utilization of capacity are all having a serious effect on component suppliers, as shown in the chart. Although the cases of Covid-19 in China are declining, OEMs are struggling to gain visibility into their partners’ supply chains, which in turn makes it very difficult to plan production. For a true picture of an OEM/EMS supply chain, they have to know their suppliers, and their suppliers’ suppliers. It takes time for this information to travel down the line.
So we’re playing catch-up, with a Q2 recovery now looking increasingly unlikely, and while this problem persists we continue to advise OEMs to seek help with securing component supplies.
