Explain to me, please . . .

[User 11148]

One nice thing about this "broken" supply chain business is the reality that it really is an equal opportunity employer: If you've got a particular ideological bug up your ass -- Unions! Globalization! Outsourcing! Liquid Soap! -- there's a good chance you can craft a credible narrative in which your thing is primarily to blame. Here's mine: Most people are only now realizing how rich they were back when there was more stuff available to buy.

I will note that one thing that's not generally understood is how consequential the least little bit of uncertainty can be. There's a supply chain training game in which you have a retailer, a wholesaler, a distributor and a manufacturer, each with its own order policies, etc. These entities are generally groups of students. The overseer of the game makes a weekly order to the retailer, which in turn orders from the wholesaler, and so on. With just the least little bit of variation -- like, say, the Week 1 order is for 100 units but all subsequent weeks the order is for 80 units -- much mayhem (in terms of stockouts, expedited orders, massive inventory-holding charges) can ensue.

 

[goalmouth]

One nice thing about this "broken" supply chain business is the reality that it really is an equal opportunity employer: If you've got a particular ideological bug up your ass -- Unions! Globalization! Outsourcing! Liquid Soap! -- there's a good chance you can craft a credible narrative in which your thing is primarily to blame. Here's mine: Most people are only now realizing how rich they were back when there was more stuff available to buy.

I will note that one thing that's not generally understood is how consequential the least little bit of uncertainty can be. There's a supply chain training game in which you have a retailer, a wholesaler, a distributor and a manufacturer, each with its own order policies, etc. These entities are generally groups of students. The overseer of the game makes a weekly order to the retailer, which in turn orders from the wholesaler, and so on. With just the least little bit of variation -- like, say, the Week 1 order is for 100 units but all subsequent weeks the order is for 80 units -- much mayhem (in terms of stockouts, expedited orders, massive inventory-holding charges) can ensue.

Interesting but you left out a bunch of stuff! Demurrage, storage and detention charges, stuffing your container with one too many pallets (trying for that free load after 10 paid!), and careful with that overweight box, you're not Walmart being waved through a weigh station and if it's not blocked properly, you could end up with a containerload of sex toys spilled all over the interstate! Oh, and don't forget the driver -- pray that he's not on the FMCSA Clearing House for drug, alcohol or other violation! And wait til he gets to the port and has to deal with the longshoremen. I don't know if you're familiar with who runs that union but I assure you, they're not the Boy Scouts!

 

[User 11148]

Yeah, well ... these bow ties don't come cheap, dawg.

 

[The Big Ragu]

What's a widget?

 

[TigerVols]

More: AB 5, the California bill which reclassifies many independent contractors such as port truckers and ride-hail drivers as employees is headed to SCOTUS. Other states including Illinois and New Jersey are working on similar measures.

There has been a shortage of truck drivers as long as there have been trucks. If the industry wants to have people lining up to drive, they can pay them a living wage. But, truck maker International is expected to begin production on an autonomous long-haul semi rig in 2024. Robot rigs with have been testing between Texas and Oklahoma for some time with a human in the cab, and that will expand to Orlando next year. But AVs aren't suited to narrow streets in metro areas, so won't immediately help the port trucking or short-haul markets.

And to think, ten years ago I was writing about Terry Bradshaw's ex-wife.

I’m fascinated by the transpo side of the supply chain. Where might I go to read more insights like this?

 

[Azrael]

I'm sure the private sector will get it all worked out.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/11/09/biden-supply-chain-ports/

 

[goalmouth]

None of that fixes anything right now. The problems have been decades in the making.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

I think that it was a portent of doom when some folks quit calling it packing and shipping and started to say it was logistics. Then, they got even more full of themselves with the whole just-in-time supply chain and convinced us that keeping ample inventories and the storage space associated with that was just some silly unnecessary expense. Decades of whittling away any margin of error has created a wisp-off-a-butterfly’s-wing-that-instigates-a-hurricane situation that was disaster just waiting for a trigger. So how do you feel now, Mr. smarty pants logistics expert? You’ve convinced yourself that you were something more than some dude slinging stuff into boxes and then into a truck and sending it down the road. You had to be the grasshopper, all high and mighty, and scorned the ant, with his hill of backup stores. And now, you’ve killed Christmas.

 

[User 149557]

I think that it was a portent of doom when some folks quit calling it packing and shipping and started to say it was logistics. Then, they got even more full of themselves with the whole just-in-time supply chain and convinced us that keeping ample inventories and the storage space associated with that was just some silly unnecessary expense. Decades of whittling away any margin of error has created a wisp-off-a-butterfly’s-wing-that-instigates-a-hurricane situation that was disaster just waiting for a trigger. So how do you feel now, Mr. smarty pants logistics expert? You’ve convinced yourself that you were something more than some dude slinging stuff into boxes and then into a truck and sending it down the road. You had to be the grasshopper, all high and mighty, and scorned the ant, with his hill of backup stores. And now, you’ve killed Christmas.

I was fine with the early reforms of lean manufacturing. But they went way, way, WAY too far. Now we are always one late FedEx truck away from not working.

 

[Azrael]

Supply chain, visualized.

Rise and shine, etc.

 

[qtlaw]

“On demand” = no inventory

 

[goalmouth]

Autonomous container ships are in testing. Help is on the way!

 

[dixiehack]

I won’t offend Oggie’s sensibilities by saying I have a logistics job, so let’s just say my work day is spent coordinating wireless device orders for a Fortune 500 company that is one of our biggest clients. I knew covid was going to be a big deal (although I didn’t realize THIS big) in January 2020 when we started seeing weeks-long delays for orders. I started putting disclaimers on my emails because end users barely knew what I was referencing about “some disease in Asia.” It isn’t quite that bad again (and it is more Apple than Samsung this time) but it is starting to get pretty hairy again.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Autonomous container ships are in testing. Help is on the way!

I read yesterday that Walmart is using driverless trucks to move groceries to Walmart Family Market (grocery) stores in Arkansas now. It figures that they'd be tested in a state that Walmart owns, I guess.

 

[Azrael]

Supply chain, visualized.

Rise and shine, etc.

Your PS5 won't be here in time for Christmas.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

I won’t offend Oggie’s sensibilities by saying I have a logistics job, so let’s just say my work day is spent coordinating wireless device orders for a Fortune 500 company that is one of our biggest clients. I knew covid was going to be a big deal (although I didn’t realize THIS big) in January 2020 when we started seeing weeks-long delays for orders. I started putting disclaimers on my emails because end users barely knew what I was referencing about “some disease in Asia.” It isn’t quite that bad again (and it is more Apple than Samsung this time) but it is starting to get pretty hairy again.

I should probably point out that I’m rapidly becoming a geezer, so my sensibilities are almost continually offended and that rant was pretty much me shaking my fist at the clouds in tribute to a more simple and noble time.

A time when you would see something advertised on a printed page, ride your bike to purchase a money order and mail it in with a scribbled-on order form. Then you’d wait, diligently checking the mailbox day after day, sometimes for months, until it arrived (if it ever did). The same sort of thing happened whenever a local store told you an item was in the nebulous void of “back order.”

The concept of delayed gratification was seared into our souls, even though we eventually learned that, whatever the trinket was that we ordered, it rarely lived up to the anticipation.

Nowadays, at the drop of a hat, delivery trucks pull up in front of my house and drivers traipse across my yard (even though there’s a perfectly good sidewalk), delivering stuff I’ve barely had time to forget ordering. And the strong stoic ready-to-handle-disappointment me has eroded into a delicate stinking corpse plant flower, ready to blame Joe Biden or whomever whenever I can’t get the exact sparkle flavor of super-sparkle cereal exactly when I want it.

Logistics.

Bah!

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I read yesterday that Walmart is using driverless trucks to move groceries to Walmart Family Market (grocery) stores in Arkansas now. It figures that they'd be tested in a state that Walmart owns, I guess.

*Neighborhood Market

 

[User 149557]

My wife and I were noting how much easier living through inflation and shortages is in 2021 than the 1970s.

There are so many substitutes available in the grocery store. So many of the things that cost a lot like clothes are now dirt cheap.

I’ll never say this isn’t a big deal and there will be families who suffer, but like living through a recession is so much more comfortable now than in the 1930’s, our shortages and lack of spending power are relatively cushioned by the times we live in. At least for now.

 

[BTExpress]

We've been in Florida a little over four months, and Publix shelves of pet food are consistently barely a quarter full. With a bunch of little stickers apologizing for the inconvenience. Went to PetSmart two weeks ago to buy urine destroyer. They were out. It's an annoyance.

 

[goalmouth]

Plenty of napkins, paper towels and toilet paper at Shop Rite. But no tissues.

Because supply chain and not, you know, cold and flu season.