Smarter parts mean risk and opportunity for supply chain
By Marcus Williams2021-10-19T11:34:00
Delegates at this year’s ALSC Global Live conference in Detroit talked about how increasingly complex vehicle parts had implications for supply chain and logistics planning
Just because an electric vehicle (EV) has fewer moving parts that doesn’t mean the supply chain and logistics planning behind its build is a simpler process.
“We hear all the time that EVs have fewer moving parts so there is less for a freight forwarder to do and less logistics and supply chain involved,” said Eva Ames, director of the Electrification and Mobility Competence Center at global logistics provider DSV. “I argue that vehicles have never been more complex and we need to think of vehicles not just for their physical components but also their software.”
With the average vehicle now equipped with around 1,400 semiconductors, according to a recent report published by Bloomberg, components can have multiple levels of software included on them.