It’s strange that this happened. Did COVID just cause everyone to stop investing for a bit, leading to all these downstream problems? Or was this gonna happen anyway?
It's a demand shock.
A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
41–50 of 136 posts
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also imagine that there are no truck drivers to drive the bananas from the plantations to your local stores, and no ships to bring fertilizer to the banana plantations. In the UK, the situation is even worse: because there is an acute shortage of truckers to truck pigs from farms to slaughterhouses and a lack of butchers, 100k pigs are set to be killed and burned - they simply grow each day, and butchers have limit…
> now innocent pigs have to suffer for society's failures. They were going to be killed no matter what. I don't think it matters much to the pig what happens after it's dead.
It should matter to us when the inevitable killing of the animal (along with the environmental harm incurred by raising it) take place without any benefit to us. Our society has decided those terrible costs are worth it in exchange for bacon and hot dogs. When these animals are raised and wasted they'll have suffered for nothing and the rest of us will suffer for it.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#43It’s strange that this happened. Did COVID just cause everyone to stop investing for a bit, leading to all these downstream problems? Or was this gonna happen anyway?
It's poorly implemented JIT. People simplified Just In Time to mena "no inventory" and then when a disruption hit, it echoed up and down supply chains. JIT doesn't mean no inventory, it means managing inventory and your supply chain to ensure adequate iventory based on needs both current and forseen. One car example, you should ensure you have 4 times as many tires available as you do cars, because an imbalance there…
Your description doesn’t sound too different (if at all) from the face mask/ventilator shortage at the start of the pandemic. We didn’t stock up, and everyone tried to JIT purchase the necessary equipment.
Maybe we all have something to learn from Doomsday preppers.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#44>Now major chip companies are resorting to unusual tactics. They are placing orders far in advance and prepaying so that substrate companies have ample cash to build more factories. Some are committing to buying the entire supply of new production lines to give their suppliers confidence to invest. If the chip makers are investing this much money into the substrate businesses, why aren't they just purchasing some of…
It costs over $5 billion dollars to build a single fab. I can only assume the more complicated chips costs 3-4 times more. It also takes over three years to build the plant itself. We aren't even talking about the people you'd even need to employ, design, and run the place (highly specialized labor). This is such a huge burdensome cost. It's not even a guarantee that that such an investment would even make sense once…
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Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's say that all Banana growers were shut down for 8 months and during that time all existing supply was bought up that were sitting on store shelves. After they were allowed to start growing again, how long until you see a Banana in your local store? You better be there when they arrive, because everyone else who has been wanting Bananas is waiting too. On top of that, can the Banana grower even get all of the ite…
Let's say that all Banana growers were shut down for 8 months and during that time all existing supply was bought up that were sitting on store shelves. -- But chip manufacturers didn't shut down. That's even close to the immediate cause, which was that the anticipation of changed future demand on the part of other manufacturers lead to them decreasing and change future orders. If you're going to ELI5("explain this t…
Some fabs did shutdown this year. One in Japan due to a fire and some in Texas due to power loss. I think both are back up and running, but it did not help to lose production.
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2021/03/30/200...
https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/04/30/austin-f...
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just came back empty handed from bike shop trying to buy some spare tubes. No supply. I better not get too many flats!
If it's a MTB or gravel bike you may want to invest in a tubeless setup.
A tubless setup definitely requires some supplies as as well.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference between 185 million ft^2 and whatever you pick doesn't matter. It may as well be in hectares or "multiples of some lake somewhere", it's a massive number. You have, and are probably using right now, a voice controlled computer that can convert anything to anything else, by just asking. Is it really worth typing this every time an American site uses American language? We all get it, Americans with their…
I think you might have missed that I already stated that it's an irrational thing to complain about because units in nature are arbitrary, but given that no one uses these units for the topic at hand, why use them at all? Just for relatability? > It may as well be in hectares or "multiples of some lake somewhere", it's a massive number. We're saying the same thing but arguing for the opposite. Like I said, no one in…
> I'm not trying to make fun of Americans, I'm trying to understand what the extra efort is worth for?
Quit being dishonest. You're not trying to understand because it's really fucking easy to understand.
If you really truly want an answer, it's relatablity.
If you ask the vast majority of Americans how many centimeters are in a foot, you'll get blank stares. If you ask them how long 30 centimeters are you'll get blank stares. If you ask them how long a foot is they'll hold up their hands about a foot apart.
Americans use imperial units because it's what they used daily, what they're familiar with, and what they know. It's really not that hard to understand.
Think about if you had to switch from Metric to Imperial. Just think about all the wonky units and how overwhelming it would be. That's how Americans think about the Metric system.
But it's easy you say, everything is 100 up or down. So? That doesn't help with the simple fact that it's completely unrelatable.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also imagine that there are no truck drivers to drive the bananas from the plantations to your local stores, and no ships to bring fertilizer to the banana plantations. In the UK, the situation is even worse: because there is an acute shortage of truckers to truck pigs from farms to slaughterhouses and a lack of butchers, 100k pigs are set to be killed and burned - they simply grow each day, and butchers have limit…
> now innocent pigs have to suffer for society's failures. They were going to be killed no matter what. I don't think it matters much to the pig what happens after it's dead.
Yes but it's a huge waste of resources that only the farmer is paying for. They paid to house, feed, innoculate, etc those pigs. Killing them to burn them realizes no profit for them.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#49>Now major chip companies are resorting to unusual tactics. They are placing orders far in advance and prepaying so that substrate companies have ample cash to build more factories. Some are committing to buying the entire supply of new production lines to give their suppliers confidence to invest. If the chip makers are investing this much money into the substrate businesses, why aren't they just purchasing some of…
Buying a company is much more expensive than paying for a manufacturing line.
Re: A big hurdle to fixing the chip shortage: substrates
#50>Now major chip companies are resorting to unusual tactics. They are placing orders far in advance and prepaying so that substrate companies have ample cash to build more factories. Some are committing to buying the entire supply of new production lines to give their suppliers confidence to invest. If the chip makers are investing this much money into the substrate businesses, why aren't they just purchasing some of…
It costs over $5 billion dollars to build a single fab. I can only assume the more complicated chips costs 3-4 times more. It also takes over three years to build the plant itself. We aren't even talking about the people you'd even need to employ, design, and run the place (highly specialized labor). This is such a huge burdensome cost. It's not even a guarantee that that such an investment would even make sense once…
In the article it says they are committing to buying the entire production lines output. Isn't that just committing to spending as much money as building the factories + the profit of the vendor, but with no control over the actual production
?