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Choke Points in Electronics Supply Chains?

Posted by Cliff on from the identifying-the-bottlenecks dept.

madax asks: "Well..yeah..I am doing some graduate level research in identifying choke points in the electronics supply chain, trying to identify critical materials used in the electronics industry, critical processes owned by maybe a select few players and potential information distortion mechanisms that could be used by a few select players in the supply chain to disrupt the entire industry. Can anyone help me by pointing to interesting examples from your experience?"

2 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. read the news by BigBir3d · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The biggest area of concern is shipping. Take a look at the effects the recent longshoremen strike on the West Coast of the US. Plants closed, or started laying off workers. And this was only after 10 or so days of not getting goods.

    "You can just send it by plane, or the East Coast." Not really a valid answer, because everyone else thought of it too.

  2. Re:Memory. by shoppa · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Don't you remember the memory prices fluctuating all over the place a few years ago?

    Which "few years ago"? This happens every couple of years in the memory industry, in a pattern that has been in place for a quarter century:

    1. New expensive memory technology is invented.
    2. Companies pour millions (today, billions) of dollars into chip fabs for the new technology.
    3. Memory prices rise to pay for the fabs, until...
    4. All the fabs go online, there's a huge glut of memory, and prices plummet.
    The only thing that's new are the newbies who believe that the cycle they're in is the only cycle :-)