A new report from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) said that several steps must be taken across numerous industries to address the vulnerabilities of the U.S. semiconductor sector.
In a summary published in October, of the “State of the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain Report,” Jackie Sturm, the corporate vice president of global supply chain operations for Intel, said that members of the U.S. semiconductor market must eliminate single points of failure, from mineral access to ore refinery, align regulatory policies, increase domestic access to skilled workers, improve logistics, and adopt financial incentives to address the U.S. market’s weaknesses.
“We need to focus more on the consequences for the design and operation of reliable and resilient supply chains without a significant increase in the costs to move raw materials, manufactured devices, and finished goods. Supply chains matter,” wrote the report’s authors. “The trade fabric we have built up for the past 60 years may well need to change radically to meet the demands of the next decades.”
The authors concluded that the U.S. is in for an extended period of perhaps a decade or more of change regarding how important supply chains for semiconductors are designed and executed.
“This report is critical to shaping the conversation supply chain professionals at all levels in their organizations need to have about this most critical component of all things digital,” wrote CSCMP president and CEO Mark Baxa. “Anything digital, directly or indirectly touching your supply chain begins and ends with the semiconductor… no matter the business you are in. Digitally connected consumers, the whole of society including the assurance of our very safety and security depend on the semiconductor.”
