A 2019 motto: Be prepared

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the January-February 2019 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

January-February 2019

Truth be told, I was not a Boy Scout, or at least not a very good scout and not for very long. But I think there are some lessons for supply chain managers in the Scout motto: Be prepared. When I Wiki’d it this morning, I found the following: Be prepared, which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.

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Truth be told, I was not a Boy Scout, or at least not a very good scout and not for very long. But I think there are some lessons for supply chain managers in the Scout motto: Be prepared. When I Wiki’d it this morning, I found the following: Be prepared, which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.

That seems to be the precise job description for today’s supply chain manager: Be ever vigilant without really knowing what’s coming down the pike. The usual duties of procuring inventory, getting orders out the door on time and putting out fires has been exacerbated by the volatility and uncertainty in the global economy.

Be prepared is also the theme for the January issue of SCMR, and it starts with our lead article by MIT’s Nima Kazemi and Bruce C. Arntzen. It’s the second part of a two-part series on whether supply chain managers have learned any lessons from the Great Recession and prepared themselves for the economic downturn. It’s a sobering read—and you can find Part 1 here on scmr.com.

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