Chinese New Year delays, coffee and LCD’s

Dear overly caffeinated engineer:

Have you ever had one of those nightmares that are so real they haunt you for days or even weeks after you have awakened?

Signed – Sleepless engineer in Seattle

Yes. Mine was so scary. It’s not good for a grown man to cry, but . . . It was the nightmare of nightmares, one that no one should have to endure. Groggy, stumbling, walking into walls. Fear dread, morning breath and more.

It was so real. What happened?

There was no coffee. And worst, there would be no more coffee for three or four or five weeks. — An eternity—

Nothing short of a living heck (this is a family friendly article).

Thankfully, it was only a nightmare, but the scars remain to this day.

Can you imagine: No coffee in the house and then finding out the store is out of stock for the next several weeks?

I need to sit down.

This is how it is in the world of LCDs. Once a year, production in China shuts down for its Chinese New Year. And even though it only last two weeks, its effects last longer. Four, Five maybe six weeks of delays. If you wait too long to place your order, your lead time will exponentially (a good engineering term) grow.

As a rule, the last date to order LCDs and have them in time is when you are carving the turkey for Thanksgiving. After that . . .

Many customers ask us what to do to keep their production line from going down? Easy: Start hoarding coffee in late November.

Well, that won’t help you when your production line shuts down, but it will keep you awake so you don’t sleep through this fun, exciting, memorable time.

At Focus LCDs, we have stockpiled extra inventory on TFTs, coffee pods, Character LCDs, coffee filters and Graphic displays. If you need LCD samples ASAP, we can get them out the same day.

If you drink coffee, we offer free shipping on all orders placed on our web page.

Have a LCD question or coffee experience to share? Send them to LCD@focuslcds.com