Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1466505
26 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2022 Feature Article by Duane Benson It's easy to frame all our supply chain woes around the COVID-19 pandemic. However, at Screaming Circuits, we started receiving dire warnings about component shortages in early 2018. At that time, we were told that the supply upheaval could last years and that we should expect it to get much worse before it got bet- ter. Now, four years later, I would say those warnings nailed it. A bit ironically, these problems have success at their root, not structural problems within our industry. e same prognosticators I just mentioned gave the explosion in wearable internet-connected devices and electronics in cars as the driving factors behind the way- ward silicon. I might add that despite these shortages, trade wars, pandemics, and now actual war, worldwide electronics manufactur- ing output has continued to increase. Our pre- dicament is being caused by dramatic growth rather than a systemic breakdown. We've certainly seen our own business grow along with the industry, and that's great for us, but it's no consolation for the engineer trying to get some boards built with parts 52 weeks out. Nor is it any fun for the folks on the front lines of quoting those assembly jobs. In the quick-turn and on-demand manufac- turing world, time is oen more important than money and time is where these shortages will bite. An all too common scenario has us receiving a bill of materials (BOM) to quote Finding Solutions in the Quoting Process