Component shortages and the impact on your existing products
Those of us in the industry have been well aware of and dealing with the impact of the component shortage for some time now. But it is now widely known by the public, not just through the headlines in mainstream media, but in the delays and/or inability for the public to purchase certain products that use those components.
Your teams are already hard at work developing new products, trying to predict into the future any potential supply chain issues impacting component selection and designing around those constraints.
But now, the manufacturing of your existing products is at risk as well, because components used in those products are either becoming difficult to source, or the prices have significantly increased, impacting profit and forcing you to pass price increases to your customers. Or in the case that they are not available, delaying/stopping the production of those products, or being forced to make changes to the product to use alternate components.
So, on the one hand, you need to accelerate the delivery of the new products to replace your existing products before you run out of stock. And on the other hand, until the new products become available, having enough supply of existing products to satisfy customer demand and keeping the cash flowing.
Does this sound familiar?
If so, one option I’d suggest you consider is to outsource the review and resolution of component shortage on your existing products to an experienced 3rd party, to ensure cash flow during this period, while your team can continue to focus on delivering the new products.
In a previous blog (Looking for engineering resources?) I mentioned the engineering consultancy, FlexWare. Luke Spencer, FlexWare’s CTO, says that FlexWare is well placed to do this, having helped many other companies experience this very issue, to find the most cost-effective approach to deal with the complexities and risks involved.
If you’d like to find out more, I’m sure Luke would be happy to discuss with you the challenges with your existing products and outline the options available.