Director’s Note–Summer 2020 The Chain

In supply chains, everything is connected. My nearly 85-year-old Mom, cat food, $1 trillion and Christmas. They’re all connected too. Wait, I can explain. Early in the pandemic, it was difficult to convince my Mom to buy her groceries online rather than going to the store and interacting with people who could infect her with […]

Handling Cargo and Procurement Mean Wealth Creation in Washington State by Spencer Cohen, PhD, Senior Economist, Community Attributes

Trade drives job growth and wealth generation in Washington. Our state is among the most trade dependent states in the U.S. Washington’s exports include not just airplanes, but also medical devices, agriculture commodities, machined parts, and processed foods, among many other Washington-made products. Added to exports, Washington is home to a comprehensive system of port […]

Agriculture Supply Chain During Covid-19

The agriculture supply chain is a very interesting and challenging world in and of itself. The products being moved are constantly changing due to crop growing seasons and consumer demand. There is also the ups and downs of the markets that purchase these products. As a wheat farmer in central Washington for 20 years, I […]

Joining the Supply Chain Workforce: An Interview with Jasen Meyers

In August and September 2019, 16 students from four colleges inaugurated the first annual Follow the Supply Chain Study Abroad program. The students followed products through the supply chain from Washington state to Vietnam and vice versa. One of the products they followed were Brooks running shoes, designed at their headquarters in Seattle and assembled […]

A Note from the Director–The Chain Newsletter, Spring 2020

In normal days, the supply chain is content to hum along, humbly minding its own business, disregarded by a world wholly reliant on it. But last week a cheery couple walked the aisle of a grocery store, stocking up on this and that, never thinking of the complicated supply chain that brought these goods into […]

Air Cargo and Covid-19: An update by Tom Green, Senior Manager, Air Cargo Operations & Development, Port of Seattle

The COVID-19 crisis has significantly affected the air travel industry, and airports including Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) are seeing reductions in the number of passengers flying by 90% or more. This also means fewer airplanes are flying, which has an impact on air cargo logistics and trade. You may not know that air cargo is regularly […]

Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Certificate–Winter 2020

In the Director’s Report, we noted that our new Jobs Dashboard we will make it easy to find training to get a good job in the global trade and supply chain sector. One of the great training programs for this sector is the Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Certificate (PSCM) provided by Shoreline Community College […]

A Note from the Director–The Chain Newsletter, Winter 2020 A One Stop Shop for Jobs

What if we could make it easier for Washingtonians to learn about, find training in, and ultimately gain work in an industry with more than 100,000 family wage jobs? What industry am I talking about? The global trade and supply chain sector which regular readers of The Chain know there are 152,000 global trade and […]

Internationalize Your Business Curriculum

On November 15 2019, the Center of Excellence, the University of Washington’s Global Business Center and Center for Global Studies will be hosting a workshop on internationalizing business curriculum organized by Michigan State University. This workshop is open to all business faculty across the northwest who are interested in learning more about globalization and community […]

Traveling the Mekong Delta and the Supply Chain by Natalia Tiosova, Student at North Seattle College

I had an excellent opportunity to spend a week in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam with a group of students from Washington state on a follow the supply chain study abroad program. I learned so much from the meetings and tours we participated in, Did you know that there are at least 230 ‘touches’ required to […]