The semiconductor shortage is forcing more manufacturers to slow production.

Daimler and Volkswagen are the latest to cut the working hours at some of their plants.

Every car- and van-maker is being impacted by the global computer chip crisis. Some delivery times for cars are lengthening from three to six months, and many new vans not expected to be delivered until 2022.

Clocking off

Daimler is reducing working hours this week at its Bremen and Rastatt plants. A spokeswoman says that the situation is “volatile”, and it’s not possible to make a forecast on the impact.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen will cut working hours at its Wolfsburg factory this week. VW chief executive, Herbert Diess, said last month that it was in “crisis mode” over the shortage. He says the impacts of the shortage will only intensify.

Switching on

Ford was among the first automotive companies to highlight the potential impact of chip availability earlier this year.

“The global semiconductor shortage is affecting automakers around the world as well as other industries, including consumer electronics companies,” a Ford spokesman explained.

“Ford is concentrating on how to best use our allocation of semiconductors to deliver high-demand vehicles to customers.”

The manufacturer has reported it could lose half of all planned production in quarter two of 2021.

The Focus production line in Germany will be on limited production for much of next month, while closures of varying length will impact Galaxy, Kuga, Mondeo, S-Max and Transit Connect production until July 31.

Closures will also impact the Fiesta and Puma production lines in Germany and Romania respectively, although to a much smaller degree.

Stellantis – parent company of the merged PSA and FCA Groups – saw eight of its 44 global plants idled at some point in the. first quarter of this year. Production losses due to chip shortages down around 190,000 units or 11% of planned output.

Shortages also mean that spare part availability will also be affected. This could hamper servicing and maintenance of existing vehicles.

Plugged in

The problems mare being blamed on the pandemic’s affects on closing down manufacturing across the globe. Alongside this, the release of new gaming and computer systems that also use the chips, not least the release of the new Playstations and X-boxes. Are machines taking control of man?

Short-circuits

The global semiconductor shortage that began in the first quarter of 2021.

That challenge in the auto industry is the latest in a series of them that began in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when auto sales plummeted as much as 80% in Europe, 70% in China, and nearly 50% in the United States. The lack of demand for new cars shuttered auto factories and sent home millions of workers. Meanwhile, orders for semiconductors—used in myriad ways, including in fuel-pressure sensors, digital speedometers, and navigation displays—dropped off precipitously.

The effects of the semiconductor shortage have extended beyond the auto sector, with other industrial players struggling to secure chips. It highlights the fragility of ‘just ion time’ supply chains, which largely rely on Asia as a hub of semiconductor manufacturing.

Many automakers are now operating in crisis mode, and few expect a rapid resolution. Auto manufacturers and chipmakers alike will need to work together to tackle the imbalance in demand. No single incident or disruption caused the semiconductor shortage. Instead, a confluence of events contributed to the situation the auto industry now faces.