Availability Update(s)?

[jcrooks213]

As far as the politics, ill leave that at the door. All of the distributors are telling us the same thing; that "Netonix is no longer responding to request for ETA's. With there being such a limited option pool for these WISP switches, we are all at the mercy of "supply chain issues" and "board shortages". It is making it near impossible to deliver results for our customers. Other switches we have evaluated either have way too heavy power draw, or lack the options that we value with Netonix switches. Like many of you, we have projects hanging in the balance waiting for switches alone. Hopefully we will get back to normal sometime soon so it doesn't force the little guys out of business.

[RebusCom]

It's in the news that chip supply is exceeding demand and prices are dropping significantly all the way back to the manufacturers, now struggling to move inventory in many areas. Semiconductor demand is in rather steep decline following the post COVID surge. What specifically is holding up the resumption of switch availability?

[Dave]

You are referring to the large companies like Intel, etc...your comments are correct, and not correct....industry is getting better, but still backed up big time...have you seen lots of car lots full of cars to sell?? not in my area, cars via dealers are basically only sold by ordering them & waiting 6-12 months, even now.

We have parts on order that haven't arrived from late 2019 still. We have many parts ordered in 2021 that also still haven't arrived. It is correct that new order time frames are improving, but a lot depends on what it is. And by improving, I mean lead times are expected to go from 24 months to 6-12 months, starting with stuff ordered now....not stuff that was ordered before.

The problem is that things are improving, but not 100% yet. Even if we get 99 out of 100 parts of a board inhouse, we still can't make the boards until that last part comes in.

And what the distributors have been forced into doing over the last 2 plus years in peace Mealing orders to try & satisfy everyone as much as they can..ie..giving customers 10% of requested quantities so 10 customers can get something, instead of one customer getting all of their order.

There is light at the end of the tunnel so to speak, but it still sucks.

And the worst part is all I can do is tell this to the end customer who of course just thinks I am full of it....

[sakita]

If it's any consolation, I believe you.

Just last month Toyota announced they would be making 100,000 less vehicles world-wide this month due to semiconductor shortages. To add perspective to that, some 2022 Toyota models currently being sold have less features than the ones that were sold earlier in the year (as in, "no parts so that feature is no longer an option"). Ford was selling some not fully functional vehicles at a discount ('non-safety critical' features not working). GM had a backlog too.

Bottom line if Toyota, Ford, GM, etc. can't get enough parts, sorry Dave, what chance have you got? I like the way you hit the nail on the head that you have to have *all* of the parts (and, to your credit you came up with the NCS models when that one part was holding up having any production).

In the general news it is harder to get a grasp of just how many other pieces and parts are difficult to impossible to get as the big focus is always chips, chips, chips.
Hopefully those other bits and pieces will start flowing freely and nothing in the form of natural or human disaster 's it up Like a famous guy once siad "Remember I'm pullin' for ya -- we're all in this together."