Your Supply Chain Doesn’t Have To Be This Broken

Your Supply Chain Doesn’t Have To Be This Broken

Share to Linkedin Anyone with even the scantest stake in U. S manufacturing knows how supply chain disruptions are rippling through the economy. Shortages of lumber, drywall and glass are delaying the construction of new homes. Backlogged shipments of petrochemicals are slowing factory production. A lack of semiconductors could cost automakers up to $100 billion in revenue. Even Starbucks SBUX has been forced to drop items from its menu because suppliers are out of stock. And the list goes on. While the causes of recent supply chain disruptions have ranged from pandemic-related plant shutdowns to the blockage of the Suez Canal to ransomware attacks, their impact has been exaggerated by one common denominator: the widespread embrace of just-in-time production, which has left manufacturers vulnerable to even a supply chain blip. Just-in-time has won out because it cuts down the cost of buying and warehousing any number of parts. But with little inventory on hand and few (or no) backup supply sources, goods makers often have no choice but to throttle back or shut down if something suddenly becomes unavailable. "It's sort of like supply chain run amok," Willy C. Shih, a management practices professor at Harvard Business School, recently told