In this SCMR Issue: It’s complicated

Yesterday, I hosted a webinar on the steps supply chain leaders are taking to redesign their supply chains to cope with this period of unprecedented demand. Earlier last month, I attended the Manifest conference in Las Vegas. The exhibitors featured a lineup of supply chain startups while the attendee list was dominated by venture
capital firms looking to get in on the action in our booming industry.

This morning, one of the lead news stories is about another disruption threatening to bring global supply chains to a halt: A relatively few number of Canadian truckers (the exact number is unclear) blocking some $300 million worth of goods that enter the
United States each day. Many are parts essential to manufacturing automobiles, which is already hobbled by a lack of chips.

Think about that: Fewer than 100 truckers on the Ambassador Bridge can put a global recovery at risk, just as one stuck ship in the Suez Canal caused several months of disruption last year. It highlights the fragility of our supply chains and the Jekyll
and Hyde nature of the recovery.

For every two steps forward, there’s at least one step back.

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