Components Shortages Growing ‘More Severe’: Western Digital CEO
Western Digital’s fiscal Q1 ended Oct. 1 “was probably the most difficult quarter since the pandemic started” for any company sourcing goods from Southeast Asia because of the COVID-19 factory curtailments there this summer, CEO David Goeckeler told a Wells…
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Fargo investor conference virtually Tuesday. “The delta variant was very substantial. There were times when we had thousands of our employees in quarantine.” As the quarter progressed, and “where we stand today,” WD is in a “much, much better situation” than three months ago, he said. But procuring components for WD products remains “a constant challenge,” said the CEO. Suppliers are quoting “50-week lead times,” he said. “We’re constantly reshuffling the portfolio to make sure that we can get the controllers, all the pieces we need, to build as much as possible. So that’s an ongoing process.” The crisis has “gotten more severe, where we’re seeing some of the biggest customers now in technology have the same challenges,” he said.