Supply chain and shipping disruptions could result in shipping delays, and increased product costs which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Supply chain disruptions have impacted, and may continue to impact, us and our suppliers. These disruptions have resulted in longer lead times and increased product costs and shipping expenses. While we have taken steps to minimize the impact of these increased costs by working closely with our suppliers and customers, there can be no assurances that unforeseen events impacting the supply chain will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations in the future. Additionally, the impacts supply chain disruptions have on our suppliers are not within our control. It is not currently possible to predict how long it will take for these supply chain disruptions to cease. Prolonged supply chain disruptions impacting us and our suppliers could interrupt product manufacturing, increase lead times, increase product costs and continue to increase shipping costs, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are dependent on certain suppliers for parts used in our products.
We are a manufacturing business. Purchased parts constitute the largest component of our product cost. Our ability to manufacture depends on the timely delivery of parts, components and subassemblies from suppliers. We obtain some of the key components and subassemblies used in our products from a single supplier or a limited group of suppliers. If any of our suppliers fail to deliver quality parts on a timely basis, we may experience delays in manufacturing, which could result in delayed product deliveries, increased costs to expedite deliveries or develop alternative suppliers, or require redesign of our products to accommodate alternative suppliers. Some of our suppliers are thinly capitalized and may be vulnerable to failure, particularly during economic downturns and periods of rapidly rising interest rates and inflation.
Global economic conditions may harm our industry, business and results of operations.
We operate globally and as a result our business, revenues and profitability are impacted by global macroeconomic conditions. The success of our activities is affected by general economic and market conditions, including, among others, inflation rate fluctuations, interest rates, tax rates, economic uncertainty, political instability, changes in laws, and trade barriers and sanctions. Recently, inflation rates in the U.S. have increased to levels not seen in several years. Such economic volatility could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, and future market disruptions could negatively impact us. Geopolitical destabilization could continue to impact global currency exchange rates, commodity prices, trade and movement of resources, which may adversely affect the ability of our customers and potential customers to incur the capital expenditures necessary to purchase our products and services.
Sales of our equipment are primarily dependent on our customers’ upgrade and capacity expansion plans and whether our customers select our equipment.
We have no control over our customers’ upgrade and capacity expansion plans, and we cannot be sure they will select, or continue to select, our equipment when they upgrade or expand their capacity. The sales cycle for our equipment systems can be a year or longer, involving individuals from many different areas of Intevac and numerous product presentations and demonstrations for our prospective customers. Our sales process also commonly includes production of samples and customization of our products. We do not typically enter into long-term contracts with our customers, and until an order is actually submitted by a customer there is no binding commitment to purchase our systems. In some cases, orders are also subject to customer acceptance or other criteria even in the case of a binding agreement.
As of September 30, 2023, our total backlog was $46.5 million, which was primarily attributable to two customers. Our backlog includes orders under contracts that can extend for several years. Our backlog can be significantly affected by the timing of large orders. We may not realize all of the revenue included in our total backlog in the future. For example, in May 2023, we removed $54.6 million from backlog upon receiving notice from a customer of the cancellation of an order for eight 200 Lean HDD systems due to the customer postponing previously planned media capacity additions. There can also be no assurance that our backlog will result in revenue in any particular period because the actual receipt, timing and amount of revenue under contracts included in backlog are subject to various contingencies, many of which are beyond our control. If our customers terminate, reduce or defer orders, we may be protected from certain costs and losses, but our sales will nevertheless be adversely affected, and we may not generate the revenue we expect.
Sales of new manufacturing systems are also dependent on obsolescence and replacement of the installed base of our customers’ existing equipment with newer, more capable equipment. If upgrades are developed that extend the useful life of the installed base of systems, then we tend to sell more upgrade products and fewer new systems, which can significantly reduce total revenue.
Our 200 Lean HDD customers also experience competition from companies that produce alternative storage technologies like flash memory, which offer smaller size, lower power consumption and more rugged designs. These storage technologies are being used increasingly in enterprise applications and smaller form factors such as tablets, smart-phones, ultra-books, and notebook PCs instead of hard disk drives. Tablet computing devices and smart-phones have never contained, nor are they likely in the future to contain, a disk drive. Products using alternative technologies, such as flash memory, optical storage and other storage technologies are becoming increasingly common and could become a significant source of competition to particular applications of the products of our 200 Lean HDD customers, which could adversely affect our results of operations. If alternative technologies, such as flash memory, replace hard disk drives as a significant method of digital storage, then demand for our hard disk manufacturing products would decrease.
33