CBS 60 Minutes had an interesting story discussing current state of microchip production & shortages, which is relevant for console production. At 1:45 they talk about how the process "can take six months". I had no idea it took that long, or that it was so complicated. But, this is part of why the covid shutdown has created a chip shortage. You don't have to watch the whole thing, but you may anyway. Total time 13 min.
With that you would think they were already in Production model and more then likely factor that into production and release date by now. If any manufacture doesn't take this into account they clearly will be bought out and liquidated for that reason of Poor Management supply.
Unbelievable! That creation process is just amazing. The fact that it takes six months to make a single microchip... no wonder such powerful machines like PS5 are sold out... many thanks @WoomyNNYes, I really loved that.
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@TheJGG Yeah, I thought, maybe they make thousands of chips a day, or a week, from start to finish. I didn't know it took "thousands" of steps to etch the transisters onto the wafers, and by the way, the process takes six months. lol, what!?
Taking six months to make a chip is nothing when the lead time of any new games console is of the order of five years. Nintendo would probably have had chip production for any new Switch models booked in prior to the outbreak of the pandemic last year.
What it does equate to is limited flexibility to respond to demand. If there's a sudden spike in the number of people wanting to buy a console it'll take that long for extra production to work through, and the same applies to a slump so you don't want to overproduce either. Remember that the next time anyone complains about 'artificial scarcity.'
You can throw in that current global chip production is maxed out, so anyone wanting extra capacity is going to have to wait even longer than usual for it. Hence, even six months down the line, you'll still struggle to pick up a PS5.
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Topic: Current state of microchip production & shortage. (very interesting video, so I'm sharing)
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