Typhoon Haiyan swept through the Philippines leaving a trail of damage and destruction. The typhoon was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in recorded history. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people are dead or missing, and millions more remain homeless.
North American PCB and PCBA manufacturing capacity is becoming a strategic issue for OEMs facing supply chain, workforce and compliance pressures.
Here’s the truth nobody ever says out loud in the boardroom: Innovation, speed and resilience are only as strong as the PCB and PCBA manufacturers behind them. Not the brand. Not the R&D budget. Not the glossy renderings the design team produces. Success rides on the shoulders of the companies that actually turn engineering intent into real, functioning hardware.
Why the industry needs a single loud voice.
There’s an old saying in Washington: “Policy is written by the people who show up.” And right now – at a moment when national security, supply-chain stability and technological leadership are hanging in the balance – we need people showing up who understand the stakes of North American electronics manufacturing.
Momentum is building as advocacy, investment and policy alignment push US electronics manufacturing into a new growth phase.
There was a time not very long ago when North American electronics manufacturing was in pure survival mode. PCB shops were shuttering. Assembly lines were moving overseas. Critical defense suppliers were hanging on by their fingernails. The story of the American electronics industry was becoming a story of contraction, not growth.
Hope that nothing will interrupt imports of PCBs and parts is not a strategy.
There’s a crisis in our industry that few want to talk about and even fewer want to admit. It’s not a quality crisis. It’s not a pricing crisis. It’s not even a technology crisis. It’s a dependency crisis, and it threatens our companies, our customers and our country.