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66 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2025 Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Dennis Reed, a senior research analyst who specializes in electronics manufacturing at Edgewater Research, discusses the current state of the component supply chain where post-COVID inventory levels remain high despite significant margin progress. Den- nis says AI is a major trend, but its impact is limited outside NVIDIA. Other sectors, like industrial, medical, aerospace, and automo- tive, are also facing unique challenges. Dennis hits these high points and more. Nolan Johnson: What's currently happening in the component supply chain? Dennis Reed: An abundance of inventory is driving all decisions right now. We've gotten out of arguably the worst shortage the indus- try has seen since the dot-com implosion in 2000 and 2001. Many cycles since then have been driven by individual products, but none of them drove mass shortages through supply chain. Until COVID, that is. We built significant inventories across the Navigating the Post-pandemic Component Supply Chain