A 'war room' mentality: How auto giants are battling the Nexperia chip crunch

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NewKitchenFixtures@reddit

I love Nexperia PMEG Schottky’s as much as the next EE, but why would these companies be single sourced to Nexperia of all things?

I get it with like a TI SOC or extra fancy ADC. But this seemed like a likely issue in 2021 with Nexperia. Like why wouldn’t you have at least 24 weeks of safety stock.

And why not design in Diodes Inc / Panjit / Infineon / OnSemi / Ti etc parts considering how geopolitics have been going.

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socialbatteringram@reddit

This. You’d think of all components, the discrete ones would be the first to have multiple sources and cross ref ready to go. The auto manufacturers learned nothing from the last shortage.

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Blueberryburntpie@reddit

The auto manufacturers learned nothing from the last shortage.

I think that goes for a lot of other companies as well.

"We need the cheapest possible supplier. Gotta hit the marks for the next fiscal quarter's reporting!"

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Green_Struggle_1815@reddit

you have to. Trading a short term competitiveness for a potential long term advantage is not viable.

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Multiple sources means unused capacity and extra cost. You don't need to have 10 sources if your leaders aren't imbeciles and criminals that ignore law and steal businesses on behalf of fascist foreign leaders bent on starting wars.

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socialbatteringram@reddit

Might be talking about different things. I mean auto companies should have taken time to qualify drop in replacements from alternate manufacturers in case of unforeseen events - natural disasters, or otherwise. Not sure it’s necessary to rant about the second half.

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JakeTappersCat@reddit

Having multiple sources for every product (which can be tens of thousands for large vehicles) is not viable in most cases. The reason why some are advocating for this now isn't because they want your goods to be cheaper or more available, it's because certain political forces want to be able to conduct wars without having any disruption of their supply chains, even if it ends up costing consumers double what it would otherwise

One of the biggest benefits of single-sourcing goods from he most efficient producer is it forces nations to work things out rather than sanction or fight. This is why the current administration wants to "on-shore" or "friend-shore" everything. If they can have sources for the same product from 20 different countries then they can fight wars all the time!

Most people on this sub and elsewhere would agree that the increasing costs of tech, which is totally contrary to recent history (globalization and china trade), is a terrible outcome. The reason why Xbox is $800 and DRAM costs keep rising is the US govt. will not allow Chinese DRAM manufacturers to compete in our market!

If you like war, higher prices and lower quality and availability of products then yes, we should have 50 sources for every product. If you think American should only be able to buy Tesla's if they want EVs or if you think GPUs should require a state license and a background check, then that is what you will get supporting this nonsense

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_HOG_@reddit

I still think you’re missing the point.

Nexperia manufactures mostly discrete PCB components. For any single component they make, 95% of the time there is a pin for pin replacement from another supplier with specs near or identical to it that will function fine in the circuit.

When engineers pick these discrete parts it’s really not that much effort to pick a second-fav…and make sure they pick a part that has a comparable alternative that isn’t in an exotic package. They can then qualify both components by splitting their design validation build. Honestly, automotive teams should all have a component engineering group that proactively selects designable components for supply chain redundancy.

These secondary components can then be put on the AVL…and then, when lead times on primary parts start to slip, your procurement team should automatically begin mixing in secondary parts to avoid line down disruptions.

During the painfully recent shortage -Auto companies should have learned this. The world’s smallest violin is playing for those that did not.

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stopICE2025@reddit

The auto manufacturers learned nothing from the last shortage.

I'm sure they did learn a lesson or two about stockpiling but given enough quarters where people forgot how fucked 2020 was and the C-suite turns its attention to cost cutting and bean counting again.

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TK3600@reddit

There is no supply shortage, it is just they need time to find a new supplier in China, and current production would have to be halted. Because Nexperia is importing from China anyways.