Today we are experiencing a global supply crisis with the delivering of products taking 2-3 times longer than they did one year ago. Products that had a 6-10 week historical delivery pattern are now taking 20-24 weeks to be delivered.
The primary cause often cited for the global crisis is the current Covid-19 pandemic. There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic may have instigated the issue, but I believe the problems may have always been there but hidden just below the surface. As an FYI, for the most part, experts believe that the current crisis will possibly prevail through mid 2023.
Action Required:
Please review the video links provided below as the starting point to researching what you think caused the current crisis and what do you suggest that we do about it, both short and long term, to minimize the impact to the end customer or possibly eliminate the problem re-surfacing in the future.
Leads/ideas that may help in your research…..
· Raw material shortages particularly steel
· Supplier capacity….if they had available capacity before the pandemic by the problem now?
· Manpower shortages
· Shipping Congestion
· North American trucking situation
· Lack of ocean-going cargo vessels and shipping containers for the far east
· Look at the problem from a QCDDv view point.
Logistics play a large part of the transportation of products whether made in North America or offshore, therefore anything that we can do to minimize the impact of transportation is especially important to a company’s bottom line – their profit!
Below are links to two video’s that:
(1) shows the situation at the Los Angeles Port of product arriving from overseas, and the challenges that they face in receiving and moving product on to its final destination
(2) How Amazon is dealing with current supply chain issues, to minimize the impact to their customers.
Please cite any of your research sources that that assists you in making your recommendations, including the two videos listed above.
See suggested format below…….
I would suggest is a business report that is clear and concise but should contain the following:
· Executive Summary – include a summary of the situation that provides your manager/director an overview to understand the root cause(s) of the issue, and a summary what your key recommendations.
· Situational Analysis – what are facts as you know them….just the facts, not the analysis or possible solutions as that comes later.
· List of problems/concerns and your suggested countermeasures of how they may be fixed going forward.
– You should be able to list 3-6 possible options with potential solutions
Unlike most reports that you have done or college or university, length is not important – you don’t need to fill the report with useless dialogue – keep the report as concise and complete as you can but it still has to contain all the necessary elements to build a convincing argument.