Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

Re:Carmakers feel chip crisis easing by bfdm on Tuesday June 07, 2022 @12:36AM (#31649946)

But this doesn't make any sense, that's exactly the problem. If you wanted a particular configuration they should direct the plant to assemble that configuration just as soon as they've finished assembling any special configuration requests placed before yours.

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Re:Carmakers feel chip crisis easing by adhesive_wombat on Tuesday June 07, 2022 @03:15AM (#31650847)

Possibly they do configurations in phases, so the more unusual your request, the longer it will be before they're building a suitable batch.

Maybe they only do adaptive cruise models on Wednesday and wood trim on the third week of the month. Now to get both you have to wait a month and because the ship leaves in 2 weeks, now you have to wait for the next one.

Semiconductors are the same. Manufacturer lead times are, even in good times, long for many things because they don't hold stock to cover big orders. If you come along and order a million AD4242WTFBBQ-OMGXXX, one of dozens of variants of a chip, they don't have that boxed and ready. You'll have to wait until the fab is doing that variant again.

The problem now is that all the distributor stock that used to keep everyone going while the big orders were scheduled is gone, and the fabs are so slammed that the time to the next free slot is measured in years, not weeks. And that's if the fab is still making that jellybean part at all and hasn't switched to a higher-margin part.

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Re:Carmakers feel chip crisis easing by pnutjam on Tuesday June 07, 2022 @09:29AM (#31653982)

I've been looking for a van and I was told that Chevy full size vans are done in the same plant as an SUV. They do a 2 month cycle of vans, then a 4 month cycle of SUV. So if you order at the wrong time, it could be over 4 months to wait.

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