Kevin Dore, operations manager at IBM’s Poughkeepsie plant, told Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney during a tour of the facility Wednesday that the technology company’s supply team has had to become creative during the supply chain crunch.
Workers at the site custom-build mainframe computer systems for world’s largest airlines, banks and retailers. Building one system can require several parts from many different countries.
Dore said the IBM supply team has started planning projects further in advance to make up for a lag in deliveries.
What You Need To Know
- The IBM supply team has started planning projects further in advance to make up for a lag in deliveries
- “It has created extreme disruptions,” Kevin Dore said. “I may get 99 percent of my parts, but I’m waiting on delivery of something, even a simple power cord”
- Maloney believes there is enough in the bill to encourage companies to manufacture key technology in the U.S. and eventually shift more of the supply chain home
“It has created extreme disruptions,” Dore told Maloney. “I may get 99 percent of my parts, but I’m waiting on delivery of something, even a simple power cord.”
Maloney was in town Wednesday promoting the America Competes Act, a nearly 3,000-page bill loaded with public grant programs and tax incentives aimed at trying to resolve supply chain issues.
“You can see how New York and Poughkeepsie are well poised to benefit from these investments,” Maloney said, noting the tech companies and colleges located in the Hudson Valley and Capital Region.
Maloney believes there is enough in the bill to encourage companies to manufacture key technology in the United States, and eventually shift more of the supply chain home.
Some key elements include: a 40% tax credit on all equipment involving semiconductors; up to $10 billion in matching funds to help local governments lure semiconductor manufacturers to their communities; and $45 billion overall in loans and grants for companies to produce important technology domestically.
“We want to see the type of manufacturing they do here expanded as we bring the supply chains back to the United States and all the related industries,” Maloney said after the tour. “There are a lot of components to these systems that are made all over the place, many around the world.”
Maloney said such a shift would also grow the industry and improve overall safety of Americans.
“We want as many as possible to be manufactured here in the U.S., particularly the high-value components that come with better paying jobs and that present national security issues for our country,” he said.
The America Competes Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support. Maloney hopes for the bill to be finalized by the Senate and signed into law by this summer.
