一个四部分系列的第三部分。读Part One和Part Two。
Faster than you can say "masks, PPEs, ventilators and antibiotics," the redesign of global supply chains has begun.
We are seeing the rethinking of the model that has existed for the past several decades, initially through the pharmaceutical and medical equipment sectors, the closure of critical meat processing centers in the U.S. Midwest and shortages of Chinese-made components for automobiles, semiconductors and telephony.
驾驶这些结果是前所未有的脆弱性ability to disruption from an overdependence of critical material supplies or product components and subcomponents from single countries. Such pandemic-driven escalation of business risks is quickly followed by cost escalation and other cascading challenges to normal business continuity. Think: production capacity limits for products experiencing surging demand, workforce disruptions through illness or relocation, and collapse in the profitability and market value of publicly traded companies.
We have witnessed extraordinary examples of state and local governments inserting themselves into the global supply chains for medical equipment. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan obtained a large shipment of medical equipment from Korea. Upon landing at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the plane quickly was surrounded by the Maryland National Guard and State Police (to prevent federal authorities from absconding with the shipment) and taken to a protected, secret location. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft lent his private plane and purchased and transported medical supplies from China to Boston, where the Massachusetts National Guard escorted them to a state strategic stockpile.
A long-term realignment
These dramatic examples of supply-chain modifications in the midst of the pandemic place an exclamation point on an even larger development: Re-alignment of global supply chains was underway before the pandemic had even begun. The pandemic has accelerated and deepened supply-chain restructuring, but it did not initiate it.
The pandemic has accelerated and deepened supply-chain restructuring, but it did not initiate it.
A number of other non-pandemic-related factors have caused global business managers to re-evaluate how to optimize their supplier relationships. These included:
- Rising labor costsin China, Taiwan and other major Asian production centers. This development already has motivated the relocation of certain product-component manufacturing or sub-assembly into lower-cost nations such as Cambodia, Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific nations.
- 持续的质量控制和相关风险问题。Food and pharmaceutical safety have been especially vexing challenges in China as systemic contamination problems remain unresolved in such areas as dairy, meat production and drug manufacturing.
- Increasing supply chain complexity and loss of business control。Many companies have tens of thousands of suppliers across the various tiers of their operations. These companies often lack knowledge of the identity of lower-tier suppliers and may be unaware of the embedded risks within their businesses until a problem emerges (often further downstream in a distant consumer market).
- Growing resistance of family membersto live in highly polluted or politically unstable countries. Increasingly, companies have to relocate family members, and their executives may live apart from their loved ones for extended periods.
- Re-examining the costs and efficiencies of multi-tiered supply chain structures。现有的供应链模式起源于上世纪80年代从预期较低的劳动力成本，提高生产效率，扩大自由贸易机会和市场准入改变了激励企业搬迁他们的生产和一些营销与研究资源向发展中国家流动。这些条件甚至在流感大流行发生了变化，由于劳动力成本较高，关税的征收，提供给本地企业受益的监管壁垒和补贴的勃起（通常国有独资）。
越来越多的业务部门也表现出产能过剩，从而提高供应链暴露搁浅资产。这个市场饱和跨石油生产，日用塑料制造业，汽车和飞机制造等业务发生。
Disruptions and higher costs are also affecting suppliers from accelerating climate change that intensifies heat and drought cycles, threatens assets from flooding, storm surges and tropical storm activities, and expands disease vectors that threaten workers and consumers.
Emerging options
跨国公司正在研究多种选择，以减少在大流行后的世界从复杂的供应链风险不断上升和成本。Their options include:
- Regionalizing supply chains.Harvard Professor Willy Shih proposes that companies localize their suppliers closer to manufacturing operations and reduce the risk and cost of using lean and just-in-time production from more globally distributed supplier networks. Following this logic, global companies would regionalize production and supplier assets in distinctive areas within the European Union, North and Central America, and Asia-Pacific geographies. This approach will be more feasible for some sectors than others. For example, chemical manufacturers, which buy and sell individual chemical components and intermediates at various stages of the production process, will find this approach especially challenging.
- Hedging and diversification strategies.Many companies face higher business risks because they have over-concentrated their raw material sourcing or supply-chain components in too few countries. Several years ago, the report that Chinese authorities were evaluating whether to limit the export of rare earth materials sent a chill through the global automobile and electronics sectors and has stimulated investigation of alternative supply sources. A hedging strategy is not designed to cease sourcing or manufacturing operations in China or any other specific nation but, in the words of David Rennie, The Economist Chaguan columnist, to avoid "putting too many eggs" in one nation’s basket.
- Building longer-term business relationships with fewer suppliers.许多公司的大流行到来之前，正在考虑这种替代很好。它代表的供应商作为战略合作伙伴，而不是参与者主要基于价格短期交易关系的重新思考。重新定义客户 - 供应商关系拓展了共同创新，更智能的生产，人才招聘和保留，当面对周期性的中断业务连续性和长期竞争力的价格合资的机会。
并不是所有公司面临立即需要repurpose their supply-chain model. However, the forces driving the expansion of global trade since the 1980s — lower costs, efficiencies in logistics and production, and restraint of nationalistic policies such as tariffs and other trade barriers — have receded. The pandemic further accelerates their decline.
如何持续竞彩足球app怎么下载支持重组
Business plans to make supply chains more sustainable reinforce and add value to realignment efforts already in progress. Numerous projects to introduce sustainability thinking and practices within global supply chains over the past 15 years have contributed substantial knowledge that such efforts yield a distinct value proposition. Supported by the private sector and government agencies (including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of State, Australian Ministry of Transport and European Union) and carried out within the supply chains of private companies such as Coca-Cola, General Motors, Nestlé, Unilever and Walmart, sustainability’s value to supply chains includes:
- Reducing business costs.Lower material and costs from energy and packaging efficiencies, and from waste elimination and recycling, for example, decrease supplier operating expenses in ways that are both measurable and accrue to the bottom line.
- Consuming fewer natural resources and raw materials.更可持续的供应链可以被设计为减少水的消耗，土壤和下游企业客户需要生产产品较少的原料。
- 德冒着供应链。Dashboards that measure supplier performance across sustainability metrics (including emissions, materials, costs and customer demand) identify poor performers and enable customer procurement managers to develop business relationships with better-performing suppliers.
- Redesigning business processes and products.A number of alternatives are available to install renewable energy technologies, reduce water consumption, practice sustainable agriculture and repurpose used plastics. Auto companies, for example, have become particularly adept in using a single assembly platform to manufacture a variety of brands at market scale. Chemical producers have organized joint teams to develop more innovative solutions with their customers for lighter-weight, more-durable and less-polluting materials.
- Implementing circular economy principles and practicesacross supply chain and value chain networks. Given the complexity of these networks, this effort requires deep technical knowledge and an understanding of the many economic incentives and disincentives that govern buying and selling decisions. The opportunities for co-innovation through collaboration across the supply chain continue to grow.
跨国公司正在研究多种选择，以减少在大流行后的世界从复杂的供应链风险不断上升和成本。
The realignment of global supply chains will evolve over many years. Major disruptions will challenge business continuity and stimulate adaptive thinking. Going forward, the objective of supply-chain managers should be one of expanding resilience in response to a growing number of disruptive scenarios, including future pandemics, climate change and trade barriers.
As companies search to optimize value through supply-chain management, applying sustainability concepts and practice can provide substantial new opportunities for risk avoidance and management, innovation and enhancement of the customer experience.
