Control Techniques Engineers step up to the plate, in record time, to tackle the global microprocessor shortage.

When your company manufactures products that rely on advanced microcontrollers at the heart of the product and these components are in very short supply globally, you have two choices. You let the crisis that is affecting the rest of the world affect you or you do something about it!

During the spike of the COVID-19 pandemic in April/May 2020, the drop in global manufacturing output led to the demand in the market for microprocessors to also drop. When businesses were able to get back up to full speed, the demand suddenly increased, causing shortages in the delivery of microprocessors to several industries, ours included. 

The impact has been serious for all businesses that rely on these components, from smart appliances, drives, cars, phones, in fact, every product that uses a microchip.

At Control Techniques we do things differently, we are simply not prepared to let this crisis adversely affect the customers that rely on our drives. We are a highly experienced, technically advanced drives company with drive obsessed Engineers to match. 

As part of our ongoing research and development, incorporating new and improved microprocessor technology into our drives was already in the roadmap for a few years’ time. When it became apparent that new technologies also offered to resolve the looming supply constraints, taking immediate action became the priority. 

Our proactive and can-do attitude has helped safeguard our drive production, our commitment to our customers and our excellent product availability. All of this was achieved in record time for a project of such scale and complexity, thanks to all different parts of our business working ever closer together towards the common goal.

Ultimately, the engineering excellence at Control Techniques has been a game changer for our company. This new microprocessor provides a future-proof platform, an enabler for continued future development and product improvements, in line with our customers’ expectations of an innovative drive obsessed business. 

At Control Techniques, we not only provide the best products in the market, but also first-class support. That’s why we will continue to innovate, monitor our supply chain and leverage the improved lead times we can offer to our customers, made possible by our ability to adapt and engineer alternative solutions.

Once more, our Drive Obsession has led us to do the right thing.  We’ve engineered a solution in record time, that allows us to keep up with the demand from our customers even amid the current adverse market conditions. Our priority is and always will be to continue to deliver the best drives.