How Supply Chains Jumped From Business School and Into Our Lives from wisepowder's blog

How Supply Chains Jumped From Business School and Into Our Lives

The past century of global economic integration through trade has been a steady march of progress, from trucks to pallets, from container ships to computers, from Asia’s manufacturing rise to artificial intelligence -- all spinning a web of commerce so intricate that it spawned a new science.To get more news about best Master in Management program in China, you can visit acem.sjtu.edu.cn official website.

Supply chains. They’re not just for mid-level managers and business schools anymore.

The Covid-19 pandemic is playing out in ways that even the most rigorous corporate stress test would have likely missed in its scope and severity. The closure for nearly two months of much of China’s economy. Weeks, perhaps months, of idled factories and millions pushed into unemployment in the U.S. and Europe. Looming humanitarian crises in poorer countries from India to Venezuela. The weight of human suffering on confidence as the death toll rises.

But despite such sudden shocks, and setting aside some initial shortages of toilet paper and urgent medical goods, the system of supplying the world’s economies -- undergirded with fresh government support -- should continue to meet basic needs even under historic strain, according to academics who study supply-chain logistics and management.
As long as governments and central banks are willing to spend what it takes to avoid complete collapse, the supply chains should rebound,” said Sunil Chopra, a professor of operations management at Northwestern University. He cites the example of food supply in Italy, “which has continued to function remarkably well despite what is the most difficult set of circumstances in the world.”

Still, the disruptions are severe and just beginning in some regions. And while there have been shocks before, like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the tsunami that devastated Japan a decade later, the system hasn’t encountered an economic steamroller that first flattens supplies and then hits demand like coronavirus.

The poster child for the use of globally integrated supply chains is the auto industry, and it halted manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic this month. Then the world’s largest tractor maker, Deere & Co., ceased production in Brazil. Caterpillar Inc., a bellwether for the global economy, is suspending operations at some U.S. facilities.

Meanwhile, companies such as Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. are reckoning with a surge in shopping that’s sure to be followed by an economic downturn. Target Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell said last week on a call with reporters: “America is largely out of business. There’s no playbook, and we are writing the script each and every day.”

While most goods are moving fine now, “it’ll be interesting to see what’s available in a few weeks, if the disease continues to accelerate, takes demand with it, and suppliers struggle to keep up,” said Chad Autry, the FedEx Corp.-endowed professor of supply chains at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “Getting extra supply in huge quantities isn’t like flipping a light switch.”