Our team recently got back from the EDS Executive Conference in Las Vegas. After dozens of conversations with distributors and suppliers, one message stood out.
Parts of the market have settled down. But IP&E (interconnect, passive, and electromechanical components) is tightening up again.
This isn’t a blip. It looks like the old pressures coming back. Here’s what we heard, and why it should change how you think about supply right now.
1. Lead times are getting longer
Lead times on key IP&E parts are climbing again. Suppliers are cutting back, shifting capacity, and being choosier about what they make.
But this cycle is different. Demand isn’t at a peak and the problem is visibility. Distributor after distributor told us the same thing: it’s not that orders are surging, it’s that no one can see far enough ahead to plan. That uncertainty is what’s stretching quoted lead times.
So the real question is simple. Do you want to wait 20 to 40 weeks, or fulfil this week? When the gap is that wide, in-stock inventory isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s an edge.
2. Delivery dates are slipping after the order’s placed
This one came mostly from operations teams. Even after a PO is in, dates are moving. Shortages, production changes, and supplier allocation decisions keep pushing committed dates back.
And the cost is real. Missed commitments. Higher expedited freight. Trust with the end customer slowly wearing away. A slipped date isn’t just a logistics problem, it’s a relationship problem.
The fix is to not depend on a single factory’s schedule. In-stock alternatives let you backfill a delayed order without locking yourself into future buys. When one production line slips, your customer never feels it.
3. Minimum order quantities are rising
This was one of the most talked-about pressures at EDS, and not just for smaller players. Big distributors are feeling it too. Suppliers want larger commitments to run more efficiently and cut down on small orders.
The bind is obvious. You’re asked to buy more than you can sell. That means inventory risk, and usually excess that just sits.
There’s a better way than absorbing it. On the buy side, existing stock lets you meet demand without a big minimum order. On the supply side, the excess those MOQs create needs a clean route back to market – buying it outright, sharing the upside, or offsetting it against future orders. Either way, inventory gets right-sized for both sides. The goal isn’t to manage MOQ pressure. It’s to remove it.
The common thread
Step back and it all points one way. Longer lead times. Slipping deliveries. Bigger minimum orders. Each one leaves more inventory stuck in more places, doing nothing.
That’s the problem Waldom was built to solve. We give distributors immediate access to excess, in-stock inventory from more than 60 authorised suppliers, over $700M of available-to-sell stock across 300,000-plus SKUs. Whether it’s stranded with a supplier or sitting idle with another distributor, we turn it back into supply you can actually use.
That helps in a calm market. In a tight one, it’s the difference between keeping a commitment and breaking one.
The takeaway
The headlines say things have calmed down. For IP&E, EDS told a different story. Lead times, pushouts, and MOQs are all moving the wrong way at once.
Here’s our reframe: the harder it gets, the more valuable in-stock inventory becomes. When the supply chain stretches, the partners who can shorten it are the ones worth having.
For more EDS insights and a deeper look at what these market shifts mean for IP&E supply, watch our recent webinar.
