Lots of electronic component manufacturers have started sending out letters to their customers, distributors and design partners in the last few weeks warning of increasing lead times for parts. When the worldwide recession first started electronic component manufacturers we’re one of the first to be hit with a large drop in orders as companies immediately cut back on manufacture and looked to use up their existing stocks. Now that much of the world is emerging from recession electronic manufacturers are being hit with massive increases in orders and are asking their large customers to give them increased warning of their likely requirements over the coming months and quarters where possible. As with all manufacturing processes, electronic manufacturers have a finite manufacturing capacity and they have to decide what components to commit each of their manufacturing lines to on a week by week basis. Whilst smaller manufacturers can’t influence this they do need to be aware of the problem and start planning accordingly.
So if your planning manufacture of your product in the coming months you need to consider giving your manufacturers as much lead time as possible and maybe get them placing orders for specific single source parts ahead of time so your not bitten by this when you need your product coming of the production line.
