INSIGHT GAMING TECHNOLOGY ADVANTECH-INNOCORE
Edward Price Managing Director, Advantech-Innocore
Te pandemic raised the global awareness of semi-conductors and the vulnerability of supply. Is this an issue that’s normalising, or one we’ll continue to face in 2023?
Everyone certainly knows what a semi- conductor is and how important they are now, that is for sure!
“Advantech has always had a presence in numerous
countries to provide business protection with manufacturing facilities in both China and
Taiwan, and assembly centres in many other regions across APAC, Europe and the US. In 2022-5 we will continue this strategy by completing the building of new
manufacturing, RMA and assembly plants in a number of countries including; Korea,
Taiwan and a large new facility in the US.”
Ed, how has Advantech-Innocore weathered the last two years? What’s been the effect on the business, your clients, your suppliers - your team?
I think it is fair to say it has been a challenging period for everyone, not just Advantech! Everyone up and down the supply chain and across the industry has been experiencing these challenges. Despite this, we are fortunate that Advantech was well placed to navigate the ongoing challenges as the largest global IPC manufacturer. Overall, I believe our customers have benefited from the direct relationships we enjoy with the key vendors in the industry and, in turn, our ability to secure favourable allocations when supply constraint were at their worst.
Our dedicated gaming team globally embraced the challenges head on, prioritising honest and open communication with customers, sharing information and working together with our customers to be flexible to the ever-changing and unprecedented situations. Te last two years were not easy, but our experienced team did an excellent job in managing us, and our customers, through these times. We look forward to re-connecting with customers again at ICE with the worst of these challenges in the rear view mirror.
I think that the shortages being highlighted in the mainstream media, certainly helped during some conversations with customers. Seeing other household brands from other markets struggling to source semi-conductors were both well-publicised and helped customers understand and appreciate the challenges we were navigating.
Te market for semi-conductors is still reliant on a relatively small number of manufacturers; given that gaming customers often require locked bills of materials for jurisdictional purposes, it is not straight forward to change components or vendors quickly. From our perspective, we have seen the market settling down, with a much reduced volatility in cost and supply. We are also seeing the shipping costs reduce, which helps everyone. I also believe that in the long-term this ‘shock’ to the supply chain during 2021/22 will enable all of us to improve the global restraints for the future.
Advantech has always had a presence in numerous countries to provide business protection with manufacturing facilities in both China and Taiwan, and assembly centres in many other regions across APAC, Europe and the US. In 2022-5 we will continue this strategy by completing the building of new manufacturing, RMA and assembly plants in a number of countries including; Korea, Taiwan and a large new facility in the US. Tis will continue to provide reliance in our systems to provide our customers with further enhanced support and in the medium-term, the flexibility and choice that they require.
Customer support and product supply became the key issues for OEMs during the pandemic. How did Advantech-Innocore prioritise and manage these issues?
During the pandemic, we maintained honest and open communications with all customers as a principle. Some of the conversations and news we were delivering was not always the best, but communication is key in any partnership. We prioritised customers and listened to the challenges facing them in the market; be that cash flow, postponing or delaying projects etc. We worked together to find solutions and championed our flexibility to support customers. It is testament to the team here at Advantech-Innocore that we kept every customer we had before the pandemic, and we actually were able to take advantage of certain opportunities where our competitors were struggling to supply.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P41
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