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Resilience of semiconductor supply chains

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JPortici:

--- Quote from: coppice on April 21, 2021, 11:27:39 am ---
--- Quote from: profdc9 on March 11, 2021, 04:14:28 am ---
--- Quote ---The 38 microcontrollers in an Audi Q7 come from eight companies, highlighting the complexity of auto supply chains, according to research firm IHS Markit.

--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---
I think that must be 38 models of MCU. In a car as complex as a Q7 there should be a lot more MCUs than that. Even low end cars generally have more than 38 MCUs.

--- End quote ---

yep. Even individual sensors have a dedicated MCU (for diagnostic, linearization, protocol communication if it's SENT/LIN/CAN/...)

Berni:
Yeah big automakers love Just In Time delivery.

But it makes sense for car assembly to work that way because the components of a car are so big and the volumes so large that they cant just buy 1/4 of a year worth of parts and keep them in a warehouse next to the factory. Things like car shells, body panels, seats, engines etc take up a lot of room to store and need to be moved around with forklifts. So it makes sense for a lot of these large bulky mechanical components of cars to arrive the same day they are needed and there suppliers understand the importance of keeping to schedule. But its still not like the guys at BMW will call up there supplier and say "Say we need 3000 more of those brake disks, can we get them by tomorrow morning?" They will definitely have the suppliers lines up in advance and confirm that they can supply the number of parts they need on the day they need them.

Chip manufacture is the exact opposite mode of operation. You can easily store 1 000 000 chips on a simple shelf while the production line setup for making one of these is significantly more involved than setting up the manufacture of a typical car part. Not only the making of the actual chip die but also the testing and binning processes that might come after it. Even something as simple as packaging chips can be a complex setup since it is all automated and there are so many chip packages it might have to work with. So it makes sense to set up a chip fab line to crank out a ton of that chip, put them in storage then set up the fab line for the next chip. So things are never made exactly to order. Once the warehouse runs out of a certain chip, it might take a while before that partnumber gets its turn on the production line, especially in these crazy times where the fab line might have a huge backlog of other work.

But really the state of the situation right now is a out of the ordinary event. Nobody would find it sensible to hold this much parts in stock.

nctnico:

--- Quote from: floobydust on March 20, 2021, 07:21:23 pm ---New NXP supply contracts - they've tripled the MCU prices and added protective clauses  :wtf:
NXP will not honour existing supply contracts, even those signed well before the pandemic. They knew the semi's had to be made and failed to manage that.

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Nahh. It wil just blow over. TI did something similar a decade ago during the credit-crunch.

Syntax Error:
Chipageddon strikes: "Jaguar Land Rover to suspend [UK] output due to chip shortage" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56841946

coppice:

--- Quote from: tom66 on April 22, 2021, 08:33:06 am ---
--- Quote from: aargee on April 21, 2021, 11:47:11 pm ---This is the way of things when the world embraces just in time production. The assumption that everyone in the chain of supply/production can do their thing as needed and within a time frame.

--- End quote ---

Semiconductors are almost the opposite of JIT.  Orders are made many months or years in advance with plans for capacity and expansion.

The problem is the big automakers use JIT,  and that's not compatible with stopping production, cancelling orders and then coming back and expecting the supply to return, when that supply has been re-allocated to customers who will not cancel their orders.

--- End quote ---
You are confusing supply contracts with orders. Supply contracts, setting prices vs volumes and other parameters, are normally put in place well in advance. The orders, which actually pull in parts at production time, are a whole other thing. Both sides usually try to warn each other about about unexpected changes in demand or capacity, but both sides are also constantly trying to hedge their positions so they don't end up with a pile of stuff they can't use when sales don't follow expectations.

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