TOKYO: Nissan Motor is redesigning its products to use fewer semiconductors and generic chips, a move that companies in other industries are also adopting, potentially heralding a fundamental shift in Japan’s manufacturing sector.
Auto and appliance makers have so far dealt with the prolonged semiconductor shortage by building up inventories.
No longer.
Nissan Motor, for instance, will move away from custom-made semiconductors for its car brakes and start using widely available generic chips.
At present, Nissan uses a specially designed chip to regulate the brakes and speedometers in its cars.
By altering the design of a circuit board, it believes it can substitute several off-the-shelf chips for the specialty model.
Nissan will continue to use the custom-made semiconductor but will soon be able to substitute generic chips if the specially made one becomes unavailable.
This will allow the carmaker to avoid shutting down its entire production system when a particular type of chip is out of stock.
Generic chips are also cheaper, an added advantage.
As many as 400 to 500 chips are used in today’s cars.
Nissan will start by replacing 10% of the chips it uses with generic ones.
A similar change is underway at other Japanese automakers, including Suzuki and Subaru, driven by a chip shortage that became a major production bottleneck in the spring.
The shortage was caused in part by the Covid pandemic, which forced many chip factories to shut down.
Another factor was a sharp increase in chip demand, as people working from home snapped up new gadgets.
This surge in demand meant there were fewer automotive chips to go around.
The effects are still being felt, with Toyota Motor cutting its auto output by 15% versus its initial plan for November.
Until recently automakers have relied on short-term fixes, such as eliminating functions that require specialty chips.
General Motors of the US, for instance, cranked out trucks without a fuel management module.
French manufacturer Peugeot used an analog device for its speedometer.
Still others, like Toyota, asked their business partners to build up their inventories of semiconductors.
For the moment auto is returning to normal, but many people in the industry believe chip supplies will remain tight in 2022 and 2023.
The problem could be compounded by growing demand for electric cars, which require more than twice as many semiconductors as conventionally powered cars.
This will force automakers to find more fundamental solutions.
The car industry is not the only one grappling with the dearth of semiconductors.
Air conditioner maker Fujitsu General is redesigning the electrical circuits of its air conditioners to function with chips that are more widely available.
The company also plans to reduce the number of chip types it uses by standardising component designs across several models.
Japanese chipmaking equipment manufacturer Disco previously used 50 different types of chips to control its own devices.
It is working to slash the number of chip types it needs to just four.