The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the risks of a global supply chain heavily dependent on offshore manufacturing. For much of 2020, shocks to the system resulted in months-long shipping delays for essential goods like PPE, electronics and medical supplies. The Biden administration has pledged to rebuild U.S. supply chains in a way that prevents critical equipment…
Total NAND Flash revenue for 1Q21 increased by 5.1 percent QoQ to $14.82 billion, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. In particular, bit shipments rose by 11 percent QoQ, while the overall ASP dropped by 5 percent QoQ; hence, bit shipment growth offset the decline in the overall ASP. Although NAND Flash demand from notebook computer…
Purchasing and supply executives expect manufacturing growth will continue for the rest of 2021 with several metrics – capacity, capital expenditures and revenue – exceeding forecasts of late 2020. There is hope that the corner has been turned on the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Institute for Supply Management, and both the U.S. manufacturing and…
Electronics sales are predicted to rebound from a down 2020, with Statista estimating the global electronics industry will grow by around six percent in 2021, led by the Asian and American markets. Shopping, already moving heavily towards e-commerce, was fundamentally altered by the Covid-19 pandemic in ways that will likely endure and combined with increased…
Labor and supply constraints continue to limit U.S. manufacturing momentum even as demand remains robust. The nation’s leading factory index, the PMI, declined 4 percent in April, but depleted customer inventories and increasing factory backlogs bode well for the long-term health of the industry. “Recent record-long lead times, wide-scale shortages of critical basic materials, rising…
The electronics sector helped drive U.S. manufacturing activity to a 37-year high in March as pent-up demand emptied customers’ shelves and firmed up expectations for a widespread economic recovery. There are no signs demand will abate, according to the Institute for Supply Management, although factories will face supply and labor constraints at least through the…
Demand remains high for U.S.- made products even as manufacturers contend with price increases, labor shortages and supply constraints. The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI reached a three-year high in February to 60.8, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the January reading. Signs for future demand remain strong, but supply chain pressures are unlikely…
Customer experience matters more than ever because today’s consumers expect greater responsiveness in their daily lives. A much-quoted study by experience management services firm Walker Information predicted that by the end of 2020, customer experience will have overtaken price and product as the key brand differentiator. This reality also is reflected in expectations in the…
A perfect storm of events have converged to create the semiconductor shortage of 2021. High-level collaboration across the electronics supply chain could make the deficit less painful, experts say. Shortages often prompt less-than-optimum purchasing behaviors. Competitive bidding for inventory drives prices up. Exceptions to approved vendor lists become common. And double-ordering – where purchase orders…
Organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology holds a lot of promise for mobile devices which are only going to proliferate in both the business and consumer markets. OLED, which is used for displays, uses very little power, can be applied to flexible substrates such as plastic, doesn’t wash out in bright sunlight and needs no…