Last week, IBM’s President Jim Whitehurst, speaking with the BBC, confirmed this timeline, warning that it would take time to add the necessary capacity to ease chip shortages.
While he warned about the problems of ramping up production, he went on to say that the industry should be exploring alternative ways to meet consumer demand whether by extending the life of certain types of computing technologies or accelerating investment in semiconductor fabrication plants.
The automotive industry has certainly been struggling of late. Ford has halved production of vehicles through to June this year and is redesigning automotive components to use more accessible chips. The company said that it was also looking at other strategies, including building a buffer supply of chips or dealing directly with chip manufacturers to better cope with the shortage.
Whatever companies do to address this problem inflationary pressures are mounting, supply chain issues are getting worse and the global semiconductor chip shortage is going to cause on-going and serious problems for a growing list of companies, not just automotive manufacturers.
It wont be just the likes of Ford that will be having to look at and embrace new strategies.
