Vegas has been dealing with fake chips for years, but the gambling industry has developed ways to separate the frauds from authentic chips.
Companies buying semiconductor chips could take a lesson from this playbook, because counterfeit chips are on the rise — with some reporting that the annual losses are in the multiple billions.
Predicting the future is typically a fool’s errand— especially given the way the last few years have played out. However, there are some solid predictions for the semiconductor industry this year that are based on solid evidence from experts in the field. We sought insights from leading sources to share some of the top forecasts for 2022. Among them are semiconductor sales, technology breakthroughs, supply chain status, and labor trends.
This year on the Talent 101 Semiconductor Blog, we shared articles to try to shed a light on some of the exciting, challenging, and upcoming issues affecting the semiconductor industry. In case you missed anything you’d be interested in reading, or are just joining us recently, here’s some of what we published this year:
As state and local governments ease restrictions and more non-essential businesses can reopen fully, many organizations are developing plans to return to the physical office. But every business’s return-to-work plan will look different. For example, some companies want all their employees to return to the workplace full-time, while others are aiming for a more hybrid and flexible approach.
Creating the right strategy requires companies to not only think about the needs of the business, but also workers’ preferences. For example, one study reported that nearly 70% of people want to work in the office for most of their workweek. This comes with a major asterisk, however; employees returning to the office want to see changes, including modifications to pre-pandemic density levels and more cleanliness and safety protocols.
In their recent “Digital Leadership Report,” IT staffing provider Harvey Nash Group found that 69% of US tech leaders say they are unable to keep pace with change because of lack of talent. Harvey Nash CEO Bev White said, “businesses face a triple whammy. They lack the supply of skilled resources they need; they have not yet evolved a new and effective employee value proposition for the hybrid working world; and the needed skills themselves are changing as technology develops at an accelerated pace.”
With this perfect storm of challenges facing today’s operations— a labor shortage, skills gaps, and challenges in trying to scale teams up to meet production demands— organizations are looking for viable solutions to meet goals until they’re able to hire adequate staff. Adopting a lean model may be one helpful way to continue meeting goals during this challenging time.
Third-quarter news on the global chip shortage crisis is not much better than it was in the first quarter of 2021. In fact, it’s downright brutal. Here are just a few of the recent headlines:
“Global chip shortage ‘is far from over’ as wait times get longer,” said The Wall Street Journal.
The “semiconductor shortage that has hobbled manufacturing worldwide is getting worse,” announced the Washington Post.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” reports Fitch Solutions.
You may have heard more about ransomware attacks in the past year or so. Seemingly every week, there are new headlines about the frequency and severity of ransomware attacks. There’s a reason you’re hearing about this crime more often: as ransomware attackers develop more sophisticated ways of targeting organizations, more and more companies have been victimized.
The semiconductor industry is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, but experts say that will only be possible if the current talent shortage is addressed on a global level. The specialized skills required by today’s industry are getting harder to find. Until some of the many education programs ramping up around the world bear fruit, semiconductor organizations that need specialized talent must get creative and develop staffing strategies they can deploy now to bridge the gaps.
Here are some of the solutions that can help teams work around the skill challenge— from rethinking organizational structure to engaging in international staffing cooperation.
As we wrap up another quarter, it’s time to look back on what’s happened in the semiconductor industry in the last few months. In this quarterly round-up of semiconductor news: the White House continues to focus on semiconductor supply chains, the EU seeks semiconductor sovereignty, and more. Read on to learn more about the latest news and technology updates in the third quarter of 2021:
Today, electronic devices are the backbone of our world and semiconductor chips are the brains inside the devices that run our lives — from our phones to vehicles to the energy grids. However, these critical devices cannot run properly unless the chips are free of weakness and security vulnerabilities. And that is becoming an increasingly precarious situation.
