What Happens *After* All the Supply Chain Issues?
It doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight for the great supply chain disruption; what are the implications?
It’s now January 2022. We are living through what some call the great supply chain disruption. As a commerce investor, seeing the supply chain in memes, the ultimate sign of cool, is truly a Revenge of the Nerds moment. It does, though, pose questions about where this all heads.
First, though, let’s set the stage for #supplychainissues. It all started in the beginning of the pandemic. China has quarantined 50M people in Wuhan to stop the spread of the virus. It also just so happens China is the center of global manufacturing. So, in essence, the government choked off trade to stop the spread of the pandemic.
How Bad Did it Get?
NYT reporter Peter Goodman laid the situation out better than I could. To essentially paraphrase him:
As a result of quarantine, factories as well as retailers cut capacity. Shipping companies assumed there would be a shipping downturn, so they waylaid ships to side line productive capacity, “which turned out to be a tremendous mistake.”
Life didn’t stop in pandemic. We outfit homes into offices; entertained…