State of the industry | Electronics Manufacturing

Over the past 2 years, the world has been turned upside down with challenges from Brexit, Covid-19 and more, facing each and every one of us. With this, the supply of electronic components has been hit drastically. This leads to the question, are we getting any closer to having a supply situation that will allow acceptable product lead times to be achieved?

With a variety of issues hitting the industry over the past 2 years, a number of electronics manufacturers have felt the impact of supply chain struggles, a spike in demand, issues with recruitment and evergrowing lead times & price hikes from suppliers.

It has not been unusual for AGW to receive quotations from suppliers with around 40 weeks lead time. However, we're working closely with our suppliers and customers to ensure that expectations are met.

When are we likely to see an easing of the situation?

It's tough to say. Whilst Covid-19 seems to be improving, and the ports have settled into a 'Brexit' way of working, we're still seeing the effects of these issues on basic equipment supply, OEMs and freight costs.

Where and when possible, bearing in mind changes to specifications and adherence to standards and approvals, AGW source available alternatives. AGW’s ability to provide prototypes quickly has allowed the approval of alternatives to happen quickly.