December 2023 – Future-proofing the Power Electronics Supply Chain

The power electronics industry has seen a few difficult years with issues surrounding raw material costs, component availability and global logistics after Brexit. By successful applying the lessons we’ve learnt over the past few years our power electronics supply chain can be more resilient now than ever before.

Future-proofing the power electronics supply chain

In order to build a more resilient supply chain, many factors need to be considered, particularly how we boost resilience, remain agile and increase sustainability. Exponential supply and demand, commodity shortages, economy and pricing all play a big part.

Boosting resilience

The ability to not only predict, sense and identify change sin supply, demand and other market disruptions is just one element of becoming a more resilient supply chain. In an ideal world demand and supply would sync up evenly, however this is usually not the case. Post-pandemic we saw a huge increase in demand for components but experienced long-term shortages due to factory shutdowns, production coming to a halt and covid-impacting the supply chain. Oversupply can also cause issues and quickly affect a business’ bottom line, which is why stock levels should always be monitored and adjusted when required.

Remain agile

It’s important for businesses to remain agile, as customer loyalty is no longer a given post-pandemic. Customers would shop around and but from suppliers with the shortest lead times even if the pricing wasn’t as competitive, availability was key. As the power electronics industry starts to return to some kind of normality, customers are starting to use their usual supply chain and buy from their regular sources. The pandemic made it hard for some distributors to supply their regular customers if they didn’t already have a long order coverage in place. Most distributors would rely on having a good range of excess stock in place to cater to ad-hoc enquiries. This period has built agility into distributors supply chain, if it wasn’t a fundamental aspect of the business before Covid-19 it certainly is now.

Increase sustainability

Supply chain sustainability is an important factor for power electronic businesses to consider, with a worldwide focus on sustainability now is the time to adapt a sustainable outlook. Some of the most common sustainability factors to consider are employees health and safety, reducing packaging, recycling, sourcing standards, consumer preferences and various social issues.  Post Covid-19 consumers are becoming more likely to purpose form distributors that offer robust sustainability credentials and offer a strong purpose.

Both environmental and social purposes are now high on companies’ priority lists since the pandemic. The supply chain has a central role to play in the enterprise sustainability transformation and will continue to impact environmental and social governance (ESG) for many years to come.

Embrace Technology

Digitalisation in the supply chain allows for greater visibility with advanced tracking technologies such as GPS, RFID, and real-time data analytics. Digitalisation also enables the automation of various logistics processes, often eliminating and reducing human error. Embracing technology also provides the opportunity for data-driven decision making providing more access to vast amounts of data from multiple sources, including customer preferences, market trends and operational metrics.

Collaborate with Suppliers and Partners

Collaborating with suppliers and partners is one of the most incremental factors to overcoming potential disruptions and building supply chain resilience. Supply chain collaboration is about being proactive not reactive, meeting with key suppliers regularly and establishing key performance metrics.  Frequent communication is key to ensuring accurate component forecasting, identifying shorter lead times, streamlining procurement and increasing productivity.

At GD Rectifiers we collaborate with a wide range of suppliers including IXYS, IXYS UK Westcode, Littelfuse, Semikron Danfoss, EDI, Dynex, Mersen, Eaton Bussmann, Enerdoor, Meth Kft, Meth Srl, Sirio, Koncar, Anysolar, Ocram, Telcon, Arcol, United Automation, API Capacitors and Applied Thermal Control.

For further information on GD Rectifiers’ product range, or to discuss how we might be able to help you with component sourcing, please call 01444 243 452 or email enquiries@gdrectifiers.co.uk.