A fierce competition between the various manufacturers has accustomed us to a permanent evolution of the capabilities of the components. Increasingly powerful, with lower consumption and at a lower price. This has allowed us to implement technologies that allow us, among other things, to connect devices wirelessly, provide computing capacity and artificial intelligence to machines, effectively manage the electric motors of vehicles, efficiently use low-consumption LED lighting, and many more things. But suddenly, the basis of this market and the availability of these components globally at low prices has disappeared.

The origin of this shortage seems to be located in a common element that all companies that manufacture electronic components need: silicon wafers. It is a basic material from which each manufacturer creates its components.

There are very few silicon wafer manufacturers and the factories are complex. It is not easy to duplicate production in a short time, so the market has done what it does best: speculate on things that are in short supply. The same manufacturers of electronic components become Brokers. That’s when you hear phrases like “you have to buy it because tomorrow it will be more expensive.” Does it sound like something to you? Any bubble that we have lived before?

The more complex the machine, the more electronic components it has and the more likely it is that some of them are not available, or their price has increased to prohibitive values.

When is this going to normalize? The truth is that nobody knows. For 2022, what we have are long delivery times and, of course, a general increase in prices. The terms may be shortening little by little, but price increases are usually here to stay. And that can have significant consequences on the costs of anything we buy that has electronics in it. Which amounts to almost everything, except what we eat and what we wear.

 VIGILANT - Control Presencia y Horario

Vigilant – Control of presence and schedule

At VIGILANT – Presence and Time Control we have been manufacturing our own equipment continuously since 1994, mainly with national suppliers, and many of them in the province of Alicante.

And yes, of course we are affected by the rise in prices and the delivery times of the components that come from Asia, but we can adapt our production processes using the “chips” that are more widely available, with the aim of maintaining prices, quality and delivery times.

Now it turns out that it can be an advantage to manufacture locally.