Hundreds of pagers used by Iran-backed Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria. It appears to be a part of a plan of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted specific people, leaving 12 dead and thousands injured.
Supply chain is in a state of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Whether you look at the impacts related to wars and chokepoints throughout the world, the uncertain economy and resulting backlogs, or the uncertainty of the reliability of key sources of supply [...]
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) continues to rage and threaten manufacturers and supply chain chain organizations. The VUCA threshold skyrocketed during the pandemic, and it has not returned to normal.
According to the ISM, "The Manufacturing PMI", a measure of manufacturing activity, registered at 48.5% in June, which is a decline from 48.7% in May.
In attending the Southern California E-Commerce & Logistics Summit, it is clear that focusing on global logistics as a system of systems is paramount (special shout out to Fran Inman for the use of her phrase). Not one link in the supply chain can succeed on its own.
The risk of China has increased dramatically over the years. Early on, executives were concerned about intellectual property theft. Although that is still a concern, there are much bigger issues.
If you are dependent on any region, non-friendly country, customer, supplier, material, or anything noteworthy to your success, you must diversify. Although this concept has always been true, the pandemic highlighted the critical importance. Some companies simply lost their source of supply overnight and have not recovered if not diversified.
According to UPS's CEO, UPS’ network flexibility gave it an edge over FedEx in landing a deal with the U.S. Postal Service. Instead of following a hub-and-spoke model to service the USPS, UPS can use its regional gateways to support the local and regional requirements of the USPS customers.
According to The California Policy Center, 237 companies have left California since 2005. Most companies cited the expanding regulatory and taxation environment.
The aerospace supply chain has been struggling to recover since the pandemic. The industry has been plagued with shortages, labor issues, and supply chain issues. According to McKinsey, demand was back to 97% of pre-pandemic levels as of December 2023.
