But I'm willing to bet the hottest topic at EDS will be the health of the electronics industry. As a general meeting place for electronics manufacturers and distributors, EDS will no doubt be filled with talk of excess inventory in the supply chain, weak demand in the electronics industry, and whether or not there will be a recovery by the third quarter. Many of the companies that were at EDS 2000, I've heard, will not be at this year's gathering. No one really knows when the next upswing in business will begin.
Many suppliers hope to see signs of a recovery in the third quarter.
Others think that if it doesn't happen then, it probably won't until 2002. Meanwhile, the EDS keynote address will discuss how outsourced manufacturing changes market dynamics and impacts the electronics distribution industry. In fact, this may be a very interesting session considering that many large electronics suppliers partially blame EMS providers for their current woes in the supply channel. The truth is that in many cases EMS companies procure a huge percentage of their OEM customers' parts and thus have more responsibility to manage their customers' materials flow. Many industry players believe EMS providers don't have enough experience to be experts in inventory management.