FIVE MINUTES WITH ...
DENNIS MENEFEE
Businesses are looking to stock up on computer chips – and Partstat ’ s specialist semiconductor storage facility is one solution
Q . TELL US A LITTLE OF YOURSELF AND PARTSTAT
» In the late 80s , I got into electronics , and in 1991 I founded Partstat . From there , it ’ s been an exercise in adapting our company and the services we provide to meet the growing demands of our customers .
In 2012 , we identified an opportunity to heighten our value to customers by harnessing and reviewing data from a large scale . This insight guided the development of our big data warehouse that gives us real-time inventory positions of all the major authorised distributors and component manufacturers .
Q . WHEN WILL THE SEMICONDUCTOR SHORTAGE EASE ?
» Intel ’ s CEO said he felt the chip shortage will go into 2024 , but that ’ s a bit optimistic in my opinion . Rising inflation and interest rates have put constraints on the semiconductor industry as it tries to work through the critical labour shortage and ramp up production .
There are also geopolitical issues at play . Taiwan makes a huge amount of the world ’ s chips , but if China makes its move it will worsen the chip shortage .
Q . WHICH SECTORS HAVE BEEN HARDEST HIT ?
» Any sector that ’ s electronic and dependent on semiconductors has been hard hit .
On the OEM level , companies that use many different semiconductors but not a high volume of any of them have been severely impacted . In the queue , they ’ re behind companies requiring high volumes of chips .
Q . HOW ARE BUSINESSES RESPONDING TO THE SHORTAGE ?
» Having experienced similar inventory challenges in the past , we ’ ve learned that , when there ’ s a disruption or technology change , OEMs tend to double and triple orders from multiple suppliers . But , when OEMs receive the inventory , they cancel the other supplier orders and this creates issues , including potentially an abundance of inventory in the marketplace .
Manufacturers are aware of this and are carefully measuring how they upscale production , knowing that past forecasting has been an issue . One way OEMs can gain a stronger position with chip manufacturers
“ I ADMIRE DISRUPTORS LIKE STEVE JOBS . WE DIDN ’ T KNOW WE NEEDED THE iPHONE UNTIL IT WAS DEVELOPED ”
20 November 2022