EMSNOW catches up with Dale Ford, Chief Analyst for the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) for this exclusive, must-see conversation about supply chain trends in this critical part of EMS companies’ financial well-being. Fresh from his association’s Executive Conference, Dale unpacks the latest data about the component categories that matter most: what’s behind the recent memory chip shortages, what the end markets tell us about where growth will come from, and how tariffs impact the component channel. In Part 1 of this data-packed analysis, they start at a 30,000 foot level, but get into the details of what EMS needs to know about what happened in 2025, and where 2026 is headed. Part 2 of this interview follows.