Chip shortage in agriculture!

Chips have become indispensable in all walks of life. They are seemingly invisible components without which no part of the modern world can function. They have found their way into telecommunications, IT, consumer and household electronics, not to mention agriculture.

Causes of chip shortages

Buying habits have changed because of the coronavirus pandemic, as we have had to entertain ourselves and our children from home. People started buying phones, tablets, laptops, Playstations, Xboxes and the like at an unprecedented rate. As a result, more and more chips were needed, and the transport of these chips was far from smooth. The closure of national borders made it more difficult to obtain parts for chips, which slowed down chip production at a time when demand was growing.

As a solution, although a brief halt and then a quick restart of production sounds good, it is not nearly as simple. A production line cannot be shut down or restarted overnight. It is estimated that on average it would need to run at full capacity for 6 months to avoid a loss of chip production.

Chip shortages in agriculture

At the end of last year, agricultural machinery manufacturer Claas said that they still expected a chip shortage in the first half of 2022, and they were right. This is not only causing problems in the automotive industry, but also in the production of agricultural machinery. While demand has grown dynamically, machinery manufacturers are being forced to shut down. "The CEMA European Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers' Association's monthly survey in December showed that orders have jumped to record highs, while nearly half of companies are planning to temporarily halt production in the months ahead." (SOURCE)

Solving chip shortages at Vadalarm

Of course, microchips are an essential component of our animal alarms, solar panels and light switches. We don't deny that we were also puzzled by this situation, but we acted immediately. We always have a general stock, but when we started to see signs of shortage, we started to stock a much larger quantity than usual. In addition, we have standardised the parts used in our products so that we have fewer types of parts to keep in stock. Although it is undeniable that, despite all the precautions we have taken, we are still experiencing disruptions in the supply of parts, we are still able to keep this within manageable limits. We would like to assure all our customers that this will not change in the future and we will do our utmost to ensure that the storms in the world economy have as little impact as possible on the delivery of Vadalarm orders.