In this Ayoa review, we will look at OpenGenius’s powerful mind mapping and online collaboration platform.Ayoa gives its users the speed and consistency to...

Both carbon buyers and landowners alike have many questions about how soil carbon storage works. Despite the complexities of the natural process, for people,...

Welcome back to The SaaS Playbook, a weekly rundown of the top articles, tactics, and thought leadership in B2B SaaS. Not a subscriber yet? 🥡 Investors and acquirers are showing an increasing openness to software consumption based revenues, as many of them

Have you wanted to land a Career in Cannabis? Now is your chance to hear from the industry insiders who lead the cannabis companies you love. Western Washington University has teamed up with Green Flower ... Read more

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Have you wanted to land a Career in Cannabis? Now is your chance to hear from the industry insiders who lead the cannabis companies...

Permanent partner teams and a format with more matches, therefore taking up a progressively larger swathe of the calendar? Why, the European Super League sounds a lot like our big leagues in Counter-Strike! It makes you wonder why the proposal was universally condemned across the football world.

 Many have focused on the Ever Given episode as a symbol for the dangers of international shipping.  Some have discussed it in terms of "choke points" such as the Suez Canal where when one thing goes wrong entire supply chains are disrupted.  And, some have taken it as an opportunity to discuss the topic of the size of the ships.  Have ships become too big?  What happens when there is a problem with a 20K TEU ship?

All of these are very important questions and are being addressed however I believe the question is even bigger.  It is about how we structure our supply chains.  It is about the age old debate of efficiency v. resilience.  Basically, how much insurance are you willing to buy to mitigate the potential of disruption? 

Start with inventory.  What is inventory?  As I have discussed previously, inventory is merely a buffer of product to substitute for the lack of perfect information. In fact, Lean teachings tell us that inventory is considered waste.  What do good managers do with waste?  They try and eliminate it.  

So, as we have done over the years companies have fallen in love with the idea of eliminating inventory because it makes the balance sheet look amazing.  But, is inventory really waste?

I submit that inventory is not waste just like your fire and auto insurance is not waste.  Think of your insurance policies.  You may pay a couple hundred dollars a month for a product you hope you will never use!  Wouldn't you consider that waste?  Well, not if you are protecting your portfolio you wouldn't.  

So, now, let's go back to the Ever Given.  The lesson here is we need more insurance (read: resilience) in global supply chains.  If we have learned anything in the last year we have learned things will go wrong.  Buffer stocks help mitigate this.  

The next question is whether we will learn that lesson from this incident.  My answer is, I doubt it.  Efficiency drives short term results and effectiveness is for the long term.  Most businesses will not be able to resist the allure of the efficient.  Even if in the short term they sacrifice efficiency for effectiveness most will eventually look for efficiency.  Not only are businesses likely to do it on their own but Wall Street will demand it for the publicly traded companies.  Another reason private companies will always have an advantage. 

What can a supply chain manager do?  Well, first, we can strike from our "lists of wastes" the word inventory.  Inventory, as I have hypothesized above, is not waste, it is insurance.  Second, become a story teller.  Supply chains in the age of COVID and Ever Given should be remembered for what they have become - stretched to the limit.  The mantra of "Never Forget" comes to mind. 

If you have doubt of my position look at my favorite graph (posted here for years) measuring, for the United States, our sales to inventory ratio:

Notice the far right of this graph.  Here you will see our inventories in the US relative to our sales is at the lowest point since April of 2012.  This is what leads us, as consumers, to scramble for everything.  

Let's not make it so every generation has to learn the same lesson.  Let's build resilient supply chains.  

This discusses the importance of maintaining a comprehensive and organized record management system. It describes the key records management procedures and requirements. Including records management...

The rush continues to commodify soil carbon or other "ecosystem services" and trade these on some kind of markets. USDA is paving the way...

Audrey Yap, President of Licensing Executive International outlines why it is important for SMEs to embrace intellectual property.

ICAO Codes - Airport, Aircraft & Equipment List Database with API The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is an institute under the United Nations which plays an important role in the planning and development of international air transport. It is currently in relation with 192 member states and its codes are internationally accepted and used every day. ICAO codes of airlines are widely used for […]

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Imperial College of London’s study on renewable energy stock returns A team at the Imperial College of London’s business school ran a multi-country analysis. They...