About two years ago, we heard the first inklings of a potential pandemic from Wuhan, China. The city closed itself off; workers were sent home. Manufacturing throughout Hubei province soon came to a halt. Travel was not allowed, in or out. No goods went in or out of Hubei, either.
Soon after, shipping in and out of China came to a halt, for nearly a month. This stymied the entire international shipping process. Ships could not offload. Ships sat for weeks, sometimes months, off port in China. That meant very few other ships could move anywhere else in the world. Eight of the world’s busiest ports are in China, and most goods pass through either Chinese ports or through the international waters off China.
Here we are, two years later, and it seems the international supply chain is more problematic than ever. Why have things not improved?
The entire international supply chain moved as efficiently as possible prior to COVID. The world had largely moved to a “just-in-time” mode of operation. Few components or inputs were stored. Things arrived just before they were needed. This saved companies large amounts of money not needed for warehousing and storage. The problem was, when transportation systems stopped moving – everything stopped. So just in time became, “where’s my stuff?”
Containers stored at Terminal 5 while more urgent cargo makes its way through the supply chain
Demand for goods rebounded unbelievably by summer, 2020, and by the end of 2020, most ports actually saw an annual INCREASE in containers moved, year over year. But despite high demand and heavy shipment volumes, things still are “not moving” as they should.
The supply chain system has tried to recover. This means that all transportation systems have to be up and running at full capacity. But all sectors suffer from two key problems: a lack of employees, and exhaustion and frustration among existing employees. This is true across all sectors and in most countries.
International, domestic, and local logistics firms cannot find enough employees to fill all of their jobs. This situation began with COVID direct impacts, whether from illness or from concerns about catching and spreading the virus. There are not enough truck drivers, or railroad employees, or port employees. Manufacturing, largely concentrated in Asia and Southeast Asia, has not been able to rebound. Vaccine availability is limited. Workers continue to fall ill, causing entire plants to close down due to quarantines. The many logistics firms around the US (and the world) similarly experience challenges in finding reliable, well-trained employees.
During a discussion with the advisory group for the Center of Excellence for Global Supply Chain, several things became clear about needed employees. First of all, employees must have computer skills – at least Word and Excel. Excel is critical to the data collection, crunching, analysis and tracking that is at the heart of international logistics and supply chain management. Second, some knowledge about the international supply chain system, and how it works, truly helps employees and employers. Third, a willingness to work hard and make smart decisions.
These are all factors that our educational programs can address. Several of the meeting attendees teach at our state’s two- and four-year colleges. Continuing to work with our supply chain provider partners and having their input into classes and curriculum will be vital to maintaining a healthy, long term supply chain system. After all, supply chain disruption is nothing new, although the pandemic exceeded anyone’s expectations for impact.
One telling note – the textbook I used in the past for Logistics Security had one page about pandemics. One page. It is an excellent book, and considers all manner of potential disruptions, such as political influences, earthquakes, nuclear disasters, societal factors, etc. But pandemics just didn’t get much attention.
That textbook was revised over the past year. I am eagerly awaiting my copy to see what it says now about pandemics.
