All over the world, healthcare workers face a critical supply shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) which prevents cross-contamination between caregivers and patients. Life-saving ventilators are in short supply. It’s inconceivable that in 2020, the richest country in the world cannot produce enough masks, gowns, shields and equipment in response to the Covid-19 pandemic for…
The Covid-19 pandemic and oil-market volatility drove the U.S. manufacturing index back into contraction territory in March, as the Institute for Supply Management’s PMI fell to 49.1 from 50.1 the prior month. With 50.0 as the line of demarcation between contraction and growth, new orders at 42.2 percent and employment, at 43.8, are at the…
Editor’s note: Our colleagues in China, Taiwan and other regions in Southeast Asia continue to report, from the ground, on the coronavirus’s impact on the electronics industry. ESMChina shared the following update. At least 30 countries around the world have declared a state of emergency, according to EPSNews sister publication ESMChina, as Covid-19 continues to…
The reality of Covid-19 has settled into the electronics supply chain as shipment delays, labor shortages and flight cancellations have upended global logistics. Although the tech industry has improved supply chain resilience, new technologies are gaining traction as the coronavirus spreads. The previous weeks have focused on Chinese supply as manufacturing slowly recovered across the…
Electronic component manufacturers (OCMs) and their OEM/EMS customers say they don’t have much visibility into their partners’ supply chains. During the coronavirus outbreak, that visibility may determine how quickly the electronics industry bounces back from a prolonged China shutdown. A survey the ECIA conducted on Feb. 7 found a majority of OCMs didn’t know how…
U.S. factory activity declined in February as new orders contracted and concerns about coronavirus-related supply chain disruption spread across industries. The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI is clinging to expansion at 50.1 percent, down from 50.9 percent in January. Fifty is the line of demarcation between expansion and contraction. “Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the…
It’s been more than six weeks since the first death from China’s coronavirus — Covid-19 — epidemic was reported in the city of Wuhan. It has since claimed lives in other nations and remains a global epidemic which, as of February 19, had killed 2,000 people, all but a handful of them in China. Remarkably, the global…
As augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies come of age, manufacturers are finding ways to adopt these technologies on a variety of fronts, including product development, training, maintenance, repair and worker safety. Flex, a $25 billion electronics design and manufacturing services (EMS) provider, envisions expanding that universe even further. AR/VR is so important to the…
The global semiconductor market is expected to rebound this year by as much as 7.9 percent, but the ghosts of 2019 haven’t vanished. Tariffs still impact more than $350 billion worth of imported Chinese goods — including the chips and passives that are staples of electronic systems — and economic indicators are suppressing spending. “Brexit,…
The scope of Industry 4.0 is so broad that in order to succeed, electronics manufacturers must concentrate on areas of expertise rather than master all new technologies. Otherwise, the industry could be mired in a sea of connected industrial processes. At the same time, this complexity opens doors for atypical partnerships that can enhance new…