Build Supply Chain Resilience and Protect Future Revenue

Shortages in semiconductors are impacting the production of every electronic-based product, from cars to medical devices, home appliances, industrial automation, smart home, wearables, and every “Thing” in between. Therefore, it impacts every company with global supply chain discontinuities, which underscores the high financial risks of relying on single-source part numbers.

What risks are you taking?

Running a business, big or small, is about managing risks. As reasonable as it sounds, many electronic products rely on a single chip reference, even for large volumes above 1 million units per year. With the retail price for the end device often above $100, tens or hundreds of millions dollars of revenues are lost every year due to component shortages.

Building supply chain resilience by leveraging component double sourcing policies is a way to mitigate these risks. Unfortunately, it was not an option for programmable components, Microcontroller and Microprocessors that don’t have drop-in replacements and require custom software. Companies had to bite the bullet and if (when) shortage happens on the single source component, it is all hands-on deck, and a difficult and sour negotiation with the silicon supplier, that had been a great partner so far.

What if double sourcing an electronic component was practical, cheap, and available for +95% of the 32-bit programmable components, such as microcontrollers and microprocessors ?

Thanks to portable standard software containers, a multi-source approach to these programmable components is now possible to ensure supply chain resilience. Standard software containers already exist in billions of units, and MicroEJ makes them available for the embedded world. The MICROEJ VEE container create a standard drop-in space, where the complete application software can sit independently from the underneath hardware. No software re-coding whatsoever is needed when switching to another component, it’s never been so easy.

Your supply chain is as strong as its weakest link

Whatever precaution you take and due diligence you make, a single source component is a risk you cannot tolerate. Switch now to MICROEJ VEE and build a resilient supply chain.

Keep Production Lines Rolling and Secure Revenues

Shifting from a risky single-source policy to double-sourcing to ensure supply chain resilience contributes to overcoming the multiple disturbances that may occur. For example, a single part number shortage can stop entire production lines, considerably impacting human resources and revenues. Therefore, it is now more important than ever to secure the overall portability for the software running on devices to effectively and swiftly migrate when necessary.

React Quickly to Supply Chain Disruptions and Anticipate Them

Adopting a flexible, portable software platform ensures you can react quickly if a hardware innovation or a component shortage happens. After choosing a viable hardware alternative to the missing part number, engineering teams can redesign the hardware electronics in a few weeks, typically 2 to 10 weeks at the worst. Thanks to embedded software containerization, the containerized code runs without a single bit of modification. Your team’s only job is to adapt the new part number to your existing PCB, OS/RTOS and BSP and connect the software container to such drivers.

Protect Your Strategic Silicon Partnerships

Developing a solid supplier-customer relationship takes time, and turning to a third party for supply reasons can jeopardize a privileged relationship. MicroEJ container technology leverages your long-term silicon supplier by covering its entire portfolio with all it specificity. You will be able to find another part number with your silicon partner that replaces the missing one and is available, typically by choosing a part manufactured from a different fab. This collaborative mindset helps you maintain and strengthen your partnership and ensures you receive priority in times of supply chain constraints.

Do not hesitate to ask your silicon partner for its dual-source strategy, thanks to its support of MicroEJ containers.