Chip shortages hit hard at Yamaha's musical instrument business
- Reference: 1658489526
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/22/yamaha_chip_shortage/
- Source link:
The Japanese company makes both acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as headphones, audio mixers and car speaker systems.
Speaking on Nikkei CNBC television, company president Takuya Nakata [1]said [VIDEO] the instrument business had been able to substitute silicon in some products, but the kit it could acquire produced a bum note in other instruments.
[2]
And while chipmakers are increasing production, their focus tends to be on newer and more profitable products. The less sophisticated tech Yamaha needs is harder to come by. As if that weren't enough, a fire at Yamaha chip supplier Asahi Kasei Microdevices in 2020 further affected the company's supply chain.
[3]US warns losing access to Taiwanese chips could break the economy
[4]Trouble brewing as iThing coffee machine seems to be hackable
[5]AI inventors may find it difficult to patent their tech under today's laws
"There were about 35 billion yen ($253 million) in opportunity losses in the previous fiscal year. I think we could lose about 30 billion yen this fiscal year as well," said Nakata.
Yamaha also [6]reported the missing $253 million in an investor Q&A in May 2022.
[7]
"Product supply shortages continuing due to difficulties in procuring semiconductors, such as sound generator LSIs, and disruptions in logistics, are estimated to continue to a certain extent into the next fiscal year," [8]admitted [PDF] the company in its annual report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.
In the annual report, the company reported a 9.5 percent year-on-year revenue increase, raking in approximately $3 billion.
[9]
In his interview, Nakata said wealthy Chinese buyers kept piano sales humming along nicely during the pandemic, proving that expensive COVID hobbies were a Middle Kingdom phenomenon, too. ®
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[1] https://markets.nikkei-cnbc.co.jp/watch/vod/40700
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YtrJnighPibGjKDwjHZ-dAAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/us_taiwan_chips_china/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/16/icoffee_kit_hackable_smarter_ikettle/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/09/ai_patent_feature_1/
[6] https://www.yamaha.com/en/ir/presentations/qa_20220502/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YtrJnighPibGjKDwjHZ-dAAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.yamaha.com/en/ir/flash_report/pdf/qu-2022-q4.pdf
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YtrJnighPibGjKDwjHZ-dAAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Do like Yamaha pianos
I hope you have a cat that is continuously working out the piano keys, so they work well and don't put a strain on player's fingers.
Re: Do like Yamaha pianos
I used to really like Yamaha digital pianos, until the keys on our Clavinova started sticking.
Replacing them is expensive and Yamaha has steadfastly refused to stand by its product from the very beginning when owners started having this issue.
It's possible that the problem has since been corrected, but I have lost faith in Yamaha's digital line-up.
Re: Do like Yamaha pianos
I've got one that's more than 35 years old and although the keys don't stick they can now be a bit sluggish to return. In this model they keys are actually wooden and the case comes apart with the aid of a screwdriver so it should be eminently repairable - once I summon up the effort to lift it onto a bench: fully weighted keyboards are rather heavy!
Big fish
If big fish has problems, imagine what kind of problems small businesses suffer with chip shortages.
For instance, imagine you no longer can buy 100 chips at a time, so you can't use a small volume of product to fund subsequent purchases.
Then if you fork out money for 1000 or 10000 chips so that you will have a supply for extended period of time, you don't know a) when they are going to arrive b) if they arrive at all and order won't be cancelled after a few months
Also you deprive your business of a huge chunk of money, so you can't pay for your workshop / office and your workers.
Taking a loan is not an option either, because you don't know when the chips are going to show up, so you don't know if and when you could pay it back.
Do like Yamaha pianos
We used to have an old "proper piano" - looked very nice, but fairly frequent (not cheap) visits by piano tuner to keep it sounding good & key responsiveness was not great (just moving a proper piano around the house a bit can be enough to knock the tuning off and sometimes temperature & humidity combination would make it sound "off" until the weather changed ).
When we moved house & space was an issue we freecycled it and replaced it with a Yamaha electric - it was great to always have something always in tune, plenty of options to adjust tone, key sensitivity was far better than on our old piano - & that's ignoring all the other advantages such as being able to record yourself and play it back, so e.g. there's a piece and you can do the right hand great but struggling on the left you could record your right hand, play it back as accompaniment and play one handed focusing purely on fixing your left hand faults. Other advantages were being able to link it to PC or whatever kit you wanted you wanted (be it via midi or sound out) & ability to have non piano sounds (good for keeping kids engaged).
Our Yamaha now probably about 20 years old, so been worth the cost many times over, only drawback is it does not look as nice as the real thing.