What’s a semiconductor supply-chain problem you saw coming… but still couldn’t do anything about?

I’ve been reading a lot about semiconductor supply chains lately, and one thing I keep wondering about is the gap between knowing something is going wrong and actually being able to do something about it.

For people who’ve worked in procurement, planning, electronics, components, semiconductors, manufacturing, etc. I’d genuinely love to hear the messy real-life version.

Have you ever had a chip/component problem where you got some warning beforehand like.. shortage, allocation cut, EOL/PCN, fab disruption, lead-time jump, supplier issue, whatever, but the warning still didn’t help much because qualification, capacity, contracts, internal approvals, or something else made action impossible?

Or the opposite: a time when finding out a little earlier actually changed what you did?

I’m especially curious about things like:

*What was the first signal that made you think, “oh, this might become a problem”?

*Where did that information usually come from: supplier rep, email, spreadsheet, ERP, distributor, industry contacts, some risk tool, or just someone calling you?

*What information did you wish you had but didn’t?

*Once you knew, what could you realistically do about it?

*Who usually got pulled into the problem once it became serious?

*Was there ever a case where the information was technically correct but basically useless because there was no practical action left?

*And what part of this whole process is still annoyingly manual?

No need for company names or anything confidential. I’m mostly interested in the stories because the real workflow seems much messier than the neat diagrams make it look.

Would love to hear any “we knew, but…” or “if we’d known two weeks earlier…” stories or any stories/experiences you had while working in the supply chain.