But for any business these days , ensuring products end up in the required quantities in a timely fashion is not a-given . Disruption and uncertainty have been constants over the past two years – so how has Haynes kept Juniper ’ s colossal supply chain ticking over , especially between the teeth of ongoing microprocessor shortages ?

He says : “ This is probably the most unique time we ' ve seen in the supply chain industry . The simple fact is there is more demand for semiconductor wafer manufacturing than they have the capability to build and ship .

“ The ability of vendors like Juniper to get material to market a little bit faster means making decisions earlier than we typically would ' ve wanted to .

“ The ability to make such decisions goes back to the idea of close partnerships with customers , which allow you to get ahead of the wave of demand .”

Haynes adds that it is also a matter of prioritisation .“ Sometimes , it simply comes down to knowing what is a realistic number of things you can build and ship with the components that you have ? What ' s the best way to use them ? Where ' s the best place to deploy them ? These are some of the tactical decisions that are most helpful .”

He adds : “ In a world where you can ’ t give customers everything , you need to stay truthful about what you are capable of providing , and this allows us to come up with the best choices we can make .”

A number of businesses that are reliant on chips have decided to reshore chip production , with Samsung US and Tesla among them .

Haynes says that reshoring “ is certainly a conversation that we ' re having with our partner base ”.

He adds : “ At the moment , when we design an ASIC ( application-specific integrated circuit ), we partner with a manufacturing company – like Broadcom or GlobalFoundries – who will produce it . It ’ s a partnership we have with our supply base . In terms of having our own manufacturing footprint , that ’ s something we are constantly looking at . With so much geopolitical risk today , we need to make sure we have good geographic diversity in terms of where our products are built .”

Juniper employs 8,700 employees worldwide

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