Doing away with interruptions to the supply chain of electronics manufacturing is a task that is laden with difficulties ranging from alleviating catastrophic effects to foreseeing changes to with cost and dealing with the impacts that come with geopolitical untidiness, to mention but a few.
Avoiding interruptions to the supply chain of electronics manufacturing is one of the biggest challenges facing firms do business here.
In this article, we do explore seven critical threats towards the stability of the electronics manufacturing supply chain.
Electronics Contract Manufacturing
Electronic contract manufacturing or EMC, in short, refers to a variety of services such as PCB fabrication, engineering design, turnkey, functional testing, subassembly manufacturing, and the fulfillment of order on behalf of original electronic manufacturers.
To avoid interruptions to the electronics manufacturing supply chain, you will need to understand the limitations and risks of contract manufacturing. They include outsourcing to the wrong firm, getting poor quality of products, having less control of your product, and losing your intellectual property.
As a contract manufacturer, you have to avoid these interruptions in the supply of electronics products. You need to ensure that the electronics contract manufacturing contract you have with your firm is legal and binding. At WellPCB, our customers enjoy legal assurances that protect your rights and interests too.
Inexperience
Experienced electronics manufacturers with a credible reputation highly reduce the risk of disruption in the supply chain. To counter any interruptions in your electronics supply, as a printed circuit board distributor or buyer, ensure that you are dealing with experienced electronics manufacturing supplying firms.
If you sell electronic products, you will be in better hands if you deal with experienced manufacturers. Experience counts a lot. Dealing with inexperienced manufacturers or producers will see you supplying substandard goods to your customers, an aspect that will damage your reputation.
As a buyer or distributor of printed circuit boards, you will safe dealing with manufacturers who have been in the field for more than ten years and counting. In that period, manufacturers will have gained enough knowledge and skills to perfecting their electronic production.
Avoiding Shortages
When it comes to supplying electronic products such as printed circuit boards, you need to prevent shortages. A deficit happens when the demand for a service or product exceeds the available supply. When such a situation occurs, you term the market to be in a disequilibrium state. On most occasions, this condition is temporary, with the products getting replenished and the market regaining equilibrium.
To avoid interruption to the electronics manufacturing supply chain, you’ll be in good hands dealing with firms that have strategies that deal with delays as a buyer. For printed circuit board distributors, they need to have in hand strategies to deal with shortages, such as collaborating with their suppliers, unlocking their ERP system, increasing accountability, ownership, and transparency among your clients.
Natural Disasters
Unexpected natural disasters may have some damaging effects on the electronics manufacturing supply chain. They bring about pauses when it comes to delivery. Generally, delays, interruptions due to weather, and inconsistency regarding supply and demand are common during such times.
For example, Hurricane Florence that hit the United States was the costliest storm around the world. It brought substantial damage to warehouses, disrupting roads and rail transport, and significantly impacted the U.S. economy by over 177 billion U.S Dollars.
While there is no practical way of predicting natural disasters, effective ways, and coping strategies such as developing disaster recovery and response plans provide detailed directions and guidelines for everybody responsible.
Additionally, maintaining excellent contact with external suppliers is essential. It ensures suppliers have robust procedures to analyze risk, avoid potential problems, and mitigate effects that may come with unforeseen outcomes. To avoid getting your electronics delivered late, you may have to deal with an electronics manufacturing firm with procedures for handling natural disasters that are either unforeseen or foreseen.
Poor Transportation
Inconvenient transportation, including everything from bad roads, lousy air travel, and sea travel. It means that once an electronic leaves the manufacturer, it has to undergo various transport services to reach the final user.
Poor transportation can significantly hurt the supply chain, especially if you are supplying electronic products that a majority of people use lately. If you are a regular user of electronic products, it is better to deal with a company with excellent shipping strategies.
Poor transportation facilitates diseconomies in terms of unreliability and inefficiencies in the supply chain. During such times it becomes hard for manufacturers to implement matters to do with lean production.
You must ensure that you know everything to do with the shipping firm to get your products at the agreed time with no delays. Poor transportation not only raises damages incurred in transit but also overhead and ordering costs.
Unstable Price Factors
Almost similar to inflation, volatile prices have a tremendous impact on the overall supply chain of electronics. Even though external factors like natural hazards, political environment, and so on affect the price, you still need to find a manufacturer that doesn’t deviate too much from their price tag.
When you deviate too much from your price tag, especially if your prices keep increasing, you will notice that you will lose clients in the long run. Unstable prices are seasonal, with the costs of commodities changing during certain seasons of the year based on demand and supply cases.
So, instead, you need to be keen on who you trust to be your electronics manufacturer. Ideally, experienced manufacturers are the best to work with since their prices rarely fluctuate. Also, go for suppliers that manufacture in bulk and enjoy economies of scale because their prices will be fair.
Lastly, choose a manufacturer and supplier that will supply at any time of the year regardless of the season. These are severe manufacturers and are eager to ensure the prosperity of their brands.
Political Instability
Political instability is one of those issues that negatively affect the success of firms that operate in the supply chain arena. With different governments and authorities that play a part in the political environment, you need to be keen when selecting where to source your electronics components.
A country like China, for instance, has an excellent political environment that makes it practical to have a manufacturer from here. There are no uncertainties regarding government policies, such as property, tax, regulatory, or laws, to do with human rights. All of these factors increase or hinder the daily transactions between you and your manufacturer for electronic products.
To ensure that you are you don’t stand to lose, you may have to select a supplier with a relatively safe political environment to operate. There’s nothing more frustrating than dealing with a supplier whose political countries can easily collapse due to instances of conflicts or rampant competition that may occur between several political parties.
Summary
While there are plenty of factors that can bring or cause disruptions in the supply chain of electronics, the above seven factors are critical when you want to avoid interruptions towards your supply chain. Are you in the market for a printed circuit board supplier that will not fail you? If so, look no further than WellPCB. To find out more regarding electronics manufacturing services or electronics contract manufacturing, contact WellPCB today.
