The Hidden Crisis: Why North America Can’t Outsource Its Future

Hope that nothing will interrupt imports of PCBs and parts is not a strategy.

There’s a crisis in our industry that few want to talk about and even fewer want to admit. It’s not a quality crisis. It’s not a pricing crisis. It’s not even a technology crisis. It’s a dependency crisis, and it threatens our companies, our customers and our country.

For decades, North America quietly outsourced its most critical electronic capabilities. First slowly, then eagerly, then recklessly. Printed circuit boards, components, subassemblies, entire supply chains – handed over to overseas suppliers, including near-peer adversaries, under the assumption that efficiency and low cost were the only metrics that mattered.

But the past four years have exposed a truth that is no longer avoidable: A nation that cannot produce its own electronics cannot secure its own future.

And that is the hidden crisis this industry must confront.

The Covid Wakeup Call We Still Haven’t Fully Heard

When the pandemic hit, the global electronics industry didn’t bend; it snapped.

Factories shut down. Ports stalled. Lead times ballooned. Components vanished. Entire production lines went dark because a single part on the other side of the world couldn’t get onto a boat.

And here’s the part everyone remembers but few want to internalize: North America discovered just how little of the electronics supply chain it actually controlled.

No transportation strategy, no buffer stock program, no heroics from purchasing departments could change one fact: if essential electronics were stuck overseas, nothing could bring them home.

Covid didn’t create the vulnerability; it revealed it.

And yet, incredibly, many companies have slipped back into old patterns: chasing the lowest quote, assuming the global system is stable again, convincing themselves the disruptions were a one-time event.

Common sense says otherwise.

The Geopolitical Tensions No One Can Ignore

If Covid was the wakeup call, China is the blaring alarm that won’t shut off.

The electronics supply chain is more concentrated in China than oil production is in the Middle East. It’s a choke point, a single point of dependency, a geopolitical wildcard waiting to become a strategic catastrophe.

Tensions rise. Threats escalate. The world becomes more complex. And our industry still relies on the hope – not the plan – that nothing will interrupt shipments of PCBs, ICs and assemblies from across the Pacific.

Hope is not a supply-chain strategy. Hope is not a national security policy. Hope is not a business model.

Common sense: If a single country holds the keys to your manufacturing, then your future is not your own.

This isn’t about demonizing foreign suppliers. It’s about recognizing reality. The US, Canada and Mexico need resilient domestic capacity not because it’s patriotic – but because it’s practical, responsible and essential.

Defense readiness depends on manufacturing readiness. Here is the question every aerospace and defense company should be asking: How do you defend a nation with weapons you can’t build without foreign supplies?

Missiles, fighter jets, satellites, secure communications, radar systems – each relies on PCBs, microelectronics and assemblies.

If those cannot be produced domestically at scale, the defense industrial base is an illusion. If production can be disrupted by geopolitical decisions outside our borders, then readiness is compromised before the first shot is fired.

The Pentagon knows this. Congress knows this. Every OEM building mission-critical technology knows this.

The bottleneck is not awareness. The bottleneck is action.

And this is where PCBAA steps in.

PCBAA: The Unified Voice Industry Has Needed for Years

The Printed Circuit Board Association of America exists for one simple reason: North America cannot afford to lose control of its electronics manufacturing.

PCBAA is not another trade group sending newsletters and hosting polite conferences. It’s a coalition with a mission: rebuild domestic PCB and PCBA capacity, restore capability, and return strategic independence to an industry that gave it away too cheaply (freely)?

Here’s what PCBAA is doing right now:

1. Driving policy that moves the needle. PCBAA has taken the lead in educating Congress, the Department of War, and the whole of government on the vulnerabilities that come from overseas dependence. The organization was instrumental in the introduction of the bipartisan Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates (PCBA) Act (H.R.3597) – the first major piece of legislation in decades aimed at revitalizing our sector.

This isn’t abstract advocacy. This is the work that brings incentives, grants, and investment home.

2. Giving manufacturers a collective voice. One company speaking to Washington is a whisper. Eighty companies speaking together is a force.

PCBAA amplifies the voice of manufacturers, assemblers, suppliers and innovators that understand that the US cannot remain competitive if 96% of the world’s PCBs are made elsewhere.

When we speak together, we get heard. When we move together, we get results.

3. Building real momentum for reshoring. Everyone says reshoring is important. PCBAA is the organization making it happen.

By uniting the full ecosystem – from fabrication to assembly to materials to equipment and testing – PCBAA is accelerating potential investments in new capacity, new technologies, and new domestic partnerships. Members are connecting with OEMs, actively moving work home. They’re aligning with federal priorities. They’re positioning themselves to lead, not follow, the next decade of electronics manufacturing.

Why Membership Matters

Joining PCBAA is not symbolic. It’s not a gesture. It’s not a line on a website.

Membership is a commitment to shaping the future of the industry rather than being shaped by it.

Here’s the simple truth: The companies that join PCBAA are helping decide what the next 20 years of North American electronics manufacturing will look like.

They are the ones:

• influencing legislation
• guiding federal priorities
• supporting strategic investment
• and rebuilding the industrial base every OEM depends on.

This industry is at an inflection point. Either we rebuild domestic capability now – while we still can – or we continue drifting toward a future where North America is a customer rather than a maker of its own technology.

Common sense says the choice is obvious.

Your Voice Matters More Than You Think

Every company in this sector, large or small, shares the same vulnerability – and the same opportunity.

If you build PCBs, assemble electronics, design hardware, supply materials or support manufacturing in any way, you have a stake in where this industry is heading.

And if you believe North America should be able to build the technology that powers its defense, infrastructure and innovation, then you have a place in PCBAA.

The hidden crisis is real. The risks are rising. The time for passive concern has passed.

Joining PCBAA is how this industry takes back control, rebuilds resilience, and ensures that our future is made here – not imported with fingers crossed. More information at pcbaa.org.

The future is too important to outsource.End of article content

Dan Beaulieu is a longtime management consultant to the printed circuit industry and a member of the PCBAA; danbbeaulieu@aol.com. PCBAA is exhibiting at PCB East this spring in the Boston suburbs.