A once in a century pandemic has pushed everything to the limit on every level, both commercial and human. Everything, and everyone, has been pressure-tested. But we can give ourselves some kudos for handling it quite well: we guarantee our customers they will receive their 3D color camera in a couple of weeks.
Though the virus may be leaving us or simply reinventing itself as a variant, its repercussions related to commerce, especially in manufacturing and supply chains, are still felt. Analysts seem to agree that this will be an issue for a couple of years yet.
Supply chains are the invisible heartbeat of enterprise. They bring us everything from the food we eat to the cars we drive and everything in between. Few people know or even care how these complex, highly tuned marvels of expedition work. They do not care until what they want does not arrive, or worse still, is not available at all.
That is when all hell breaks loose. That is when projects fail. As we see some machine vision manufacturers struggle with extended lead-time, that is when customers switch to someone who can deliver on their needs.
Okay, enough doom and gloom. We are talking about this topic today because this ‘invisible hand’ of supply chain is part of our product, every product. It requires all the same time, effort, and diligence as software libraries, industrial design, and electronics R&D. The supply chain is a crucial part of any product delivery.
Zivid’s management team comes from some of the best-in-class industries across the fields of semiconductor, software-as-a-service, high-speed networking to name just a few. With their industry experience, putting together a bullet-proof manufacturing and supply business was one of the first orders of business when Zivid started. We can make the best, high-speed color 3D cameras in the world, and we do, but if we cannot deliver them to customers, what does it amount to?
Zivid anticipates double-digit growth in 2022. We can see this through customer activity and inbound orders. We have pressed our suppliers to build in buffer capacity, plenty of buffer capacity. The world of 3D vision is clearly in the ascent, but nobody, honestly, can predict when that big uptick occurs and the move to mainstream within industries occurs. So, what do you do about that? You ensure you have the best supply partners; you have the best relationships with those partners, and you get firm commitments on their ability to deliver if, and when that uptick occurs.
Concretely, what is our guarantee in terms of shipping delay? Here is Zivid’s promise: We can ship your Zivid 3D color camera in less than 6 weeks.
Semiconductors are the biggest pinch right now. Even massive OEMs in automotive are hearing they will have to wait up to two years to get hold of essential chips for the final product to ship, and we’re not even talking about the state-of-the-art chips. At Zivid we made smart moves on the semiconductor front as a part of our design process, and no, I am not disclosing what that was, but it helped isolate us from exactly the issue that is afflicting some people in our industry.
We are building 3D cameras as I type this, we are open for business, and if your project needs a 3D camera to get your project started, you will have it within six weeks, how does that sound?