Why supply chain management gets stuck

Supply chain management deals with procurement, operations, logistics and marketing channels that turn raw materials into finished products and deliver them to customers, and Keith Oliver introduced the term to the public domain in 1982. The lessons answer why supply chains get stuck and help readers understand how they respond to disruption. They consider the pressures that test supply chains and the ways organizations adapt.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 27 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   supply chain management · Wikipedia · 59 min read

   In supply chain management, the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction, when a ship blocked the canal for several days, shows persistence: removing the ship as quickly as possible to allow "normal" operations. During the 2019-2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, governments in countries with effective domestic supply chain management had enough medical supplies to support their needs and enough to donate their surplus to front-line health workers in other jurisdictions. Supply chain management can involve stage 1 systems, where production, storage, distribution and materials management operate largely separately, or stage 2 systems, where a coordinated plan integrates these functions, often with ERP systems.

2. Read
   

   Strategies to secure America's supply chains · Noahpinion (Substack) · 26 min read

   Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its gas supply and one-third of its total energy needs, leaving it exposed to supply-chain disruption. The CEO of BASF warned that severing ties "would mean the destruction of the entire German economy," but Germany's economy actually grew by nearly 2% in 2022.

3. Watch
   

   Tracing Apple's Race to Move Its Chip Supply Chain to the U.S. · YouTube · 2 min watch

   Apple is trying to bring its semiconductor supply chain to the United States. A WSJ reporter visited suppliers TSMC, ASML and Foxconn, and chip production concentrated in Taiwan carries risk, as does relocating suppliers.

4. Book
   

   The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement · Bookshop.org

   The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt explains the ideas underlying the Theory of Constraints (TOC).

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