Medtech supply chains reset as chip demand and tariffs collide

By Amara Osei

Medtech manufacturers face another semiconductor crisis in 2026 as AI data centers compete for chips, while Solventum manages 30,000 SKUs.

At AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in Boston on Monday, executives said tariff volatility, geopolitical risk and more precise customer requirements have forced medical-device companies to rewrite their supply chains. The common aim is uninterrupted patient access to critical therapies when components, plants or logistics are disrupted.

The chip squeeze has returned

Zoll Medical chairman Jon Rennert said device makers already coped with semiconductor shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and tariff pressure. The new crisis arrives as the artificial-intelligence infrastructure buildout puts data centers into direct competition for the same chips.

“There’s been more supply chain disruption to the medtech industry in the last five years than at any point that I’ve seen in my career, and I imagine many of you feel the same way,” Rennert told the conference audience.

Zoll has made strategic investments in inventory. Rennert said the added stock is expensive, but it buys lead time and the ability to respond when conditions change. He described just-in-time inventory as never particularly important to healthcare and now effectively dead.

Historically, Zoll lacked relationships with leading chip suppliers and bought electronic boards from contract manufacturers. To protect critical electronics, it has worked to make suppliers understand the patient consequences of shortages.

What does this change for medtech supply chains?

The practical change is that chip capacity, buffer stock and supplier relationships now sit at the center of continuity planning. Rennert said leading chip suppliers often lack visibility into how dependent patients are on Zoll’s devices.

Zoll remains a small demand stream while AI companies bid up components. Rennert argued that a small allocation would make a material difference to patients. For manufacturers, contract manufacturers and logistics teams, supplier qualification, component mapping and excess-capacity planning are now central to keeping production moving.

The immediate commercial stakes also reach beyond chipmakers. Zoll has faced disruptions when suppliers closed plants after other customers stopped buying because of tariffs. It developed relationships with parallel suppliers that have spare capacity, allowing the company to front-load projects when necessary.

Resilience cannot cover every SKU

Solventum chief commercial officer Heather Knight said constant scenario planning is needed because customer requirements have become deeper and more precise. Its 30,000 SKUs make full redundancy impossible.

Potential disruptions include:

• weather events;
• cybersecurity issues;
• geopolitical tensions; and
• a supplier discontinuing a component needed to finish a product.

Knight recommended prioritizing life-saving products on which customers depend, then building resiliency backward from those items. For a portfolio spanning wound care, infection prevention, dental products and health information systems, that triage matters more than duplicating every component.

Solventum, the 3M healthcare spinoff, operates across those four areas. The distinction is especially important for life-saving products, where an interruption can affect patient care rather than merely delay delivery schedules.

Regional leaders now hold the risk

Vantive CEO Christopher Toth recommended three elements for disaster recovery:

• a named point person and clear steps to follow;
• integrated business planning that matches events in the field with supply-chain information; and
• regional leaders accountable for the inventory they hold.

Under Toth’s model, regional leaders carry shared responsibility for stock decisions. Raising inventory costs money against their profit-and-loss statements, but that cost becomes a calculated operating choice rather than a distant procurement decision.

Vantive was formed in 2025 when Baxter sold its kidney-care business to the Carlyle Group. Home dialysis is a central focus. In many markets, patients depend on solutions that clear toxins from their bodies, and those products must reach their homes.

Vantive operates 20 global manufacturing facilities. Toth called the loss of those home-delivered products a catastrophic outcome and urged companies to treat manufacturing and supply-chain footprints as competitive advantages rather than costs.

The billions invested in that infrastructure also create a barrier for competitors entering the market, Toth said. A network built for continuity can therefore support both resilience and market position.

Supply chains move closer to demand

Knight also urged companies to localize sourcing and production where demand sits. She advised them to “look at where you can buy where you make and then make where you sell. So you’re not shipping product all over the globe.”

Her scenario-planning approach includes reviewing portfolios for opportunities to cross-register products with regulators in different geographies before a disruption strikes. That preparation can save response time without duplicating the whole portfolio.

Zoll’s experience shows why that work now runs in parallel. Rennert said the company works two or three times as hard to stay ahead of disruptions as it did five years ago, a load created by scarce components, tariff-driven supplier exits and the need to front-load projects.

Toth described the governing principle in personal terms: teams should act as if each patient is a parent, sibling or child. Looking into 2026, the capacity test is whether buffer inventories, parallel chip suppliers and regionalized production can absorb shortages before critical therapies and home dialysis supplies stop moving. None of the executives described a quick return to just-in-time purchasing.