AN EXTENDATA UPDATE ON THE RUGGED COMPUTING, PRINTING, AND LABELS SUPPLY CHAINGlobal customer demand is changing every five minutes. It’s hard to keep up. No one knows that better than those in the supply chain. Product shortages, warehouse capacity shortages, employee shortages, container shortages, and the inevitable price increases have us all wondering, “What’s going on?”
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the cost of transporting a container from China to the United States has increased more than 228% in the last year. Until container circulation improves, and demand is met faster, prices will likely keep rising. When will this all get better? No one knows.
“The American’s buying strength is so strong and epic, that we can’t absorb all this cargo into the domestic supply chain.”
— Port of LA Director Gene Seroka
The perfect storm The pandemic. Quarantines and social distancing have caused delays in raw material procurement and manufacturing. * Samsung was forced to stop production in two Texas chip factories earlier in the year. Those two facilities manufacture about 28% of Samsung’s total chip output. * The constant change in consumer demand. Supply chains are adjusting but not quickly enough. * Gridlock in the Suez. In March, Ever Given was stuck in the canal for 5 days causing a large disruption that we still haven’t recovered from. * The average transportation time has more than doubled, from an average of 14 days to our current 33 days. * Shipping container delays and shortages. With a new record in September; 70 + cargo ships are waiting to unload in California ports. This is partly due to the shortage of trucks and drivers. * Plastic shortages*. The Texas freeze last winter shut down many chemical plants. Plastic production took a large hit that we are still seeing the effects from.
WHAT DID EXTENDATA DO?Suppliers are forecasting the shortages to continue well into 2022. We had hoped that ExtenData’s long-standing relationships and increased communication with manufacturing and distribution suppliers would ease the disruption to our customers. However, no one in the industry can escape the impact shortages are having on the supply chain - not even ExtenData.
HOW CAN YOU NAVIGATE THE SUPPLY CHAIN BETTER?Plan ahead. We are encouraging customers with pending projects to start conversations as soon as possible. Up to six months before your project deadline. Yes, you read that correctly. Six months.
Get help from the experts. Solutions like IT and print managed services are helpful and cost savings strategies to help your day-to-day operations run smoothly. If you are spread thin because of supply chain mishaps or low on staff why not get help from the people that know your business needs best.
Thermal Managed Print Servies (T-MPS)
Along with printer device monitoring and management, T-MPS automatically replenishes thermal supplies so your labels are automatically ordered at the right time, sent to the right place, at the right price.
Despite durable label supply delays, you will always be a step ahead. Thermal Managed Print Services provides thermal label supply chain simplicity and reliability. Level up your game, and beat the supply chain nightmare.
Managed Services from DecisionPoint
Is your IT team tired? Overworked? As your business grows, so does your IT management burden. Keep your team where they are needed the most and we’ll handle the rest.
Ensuring your workforce’s technology functions anywhere is our business. We utilize our proven experience by driving preventative, intelligent automation, and evolved processes to remove, reduce, and rapidly resolve your workforce’s technology incidents. Let us help you drive a more engaged and productive workforce.
Remember we are part of your team, utilize us, we will happily see you through to the other side.
CONTACT AN EXPERT TODAY
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