“We’re out of chips” may not sound any big alarm bells when you’re planning your grocery list, but it presents some major hurdles when those chips are microchips and your shopping list includes new electronics. Unfortunately, everybody is out of chips at the moment, more or less. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with other reversals, has made computer chips extremely hard to come by – and that’s bad news for electronic equipment production all over the world, including the U.S.

The Commerce Department issued a recent report stating that chip manufacturers went from having about 40 days’ worth of chips in reserve in 2019 to a mere five days’ worth of chips on hand to meet the world’s microprocessor demands in 2021. The shortage has limited the production and distribution of home appliances, phones, and other everyday devices, while also jacking up the price of new cars. But it also poses obvious issues for any business that needs to get its hands on new electronic components. The supply chain is doing its best to remain intact, but reduced supply naturally leads to increased demand. To make matters worse, this trend appears likely to continue well into the year.

So what can your IT department do in the face of all these unavoidable delays? We recommend that you move any large-scale hardware acquisition forward on your calendar. Plan to implement such changes two to three months in advance, and you won’t find the wait for your electronics quite so detrimental to your everyday operations. The other thing you can do is plan your hardware purchases through our trusted Austin business technical support team here at Gravity Systems. We have the vendor connections and industry knowledge to help you get around hardware shortages as gracefully as possible. Contact us to learn more.