The world is reliant on a continuous supply of chipsets for products across virtually all industries. Due to a multitude of factors including geopolitical, social, economic and environmental dynamics explained in the paper, chipsets became one of the most sought-after products globally with chipset manufacturers unable to keep up with the high demand. This thesis aims to examine the dynamics attached to the shortage of chipsets and tries to extract meaningful insights from it, allowing the paper’s client, Swisscom, to analyse its behaviour and actions in recent years.

According to a theoretical framework, the paper shall extract meaningful insights and recommendations on how Swisscom can mitigate the respective supply chain risks as much as possible. The majority of the paper’s sources rely on secondary data; however, a smaller part of the sources within the thesis was conducted by using primary sources through interviews with industry experts and the use of personal communication.

Apart from key findings and the analysis part focusing on the chipset shortage, its dynamics and effects on Swisscom and its supply chains, the paper also contains all the possible alternatives, recommendations and conclusions found along with an assessment of how well Swisscom was able to mitigate its supply chain risks and how contemporary and future risks might impact the overall landscape further. The main alternatives resulting from the research involve both potential changes on an operational as well as strategic level. The optimal use of already existing resources, along with time and money constraints, have been taken into account.