A never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
—Brian Higgins Principal, Supply Chain & Operations LeaderKPMG
CHAOS: Challenging Hectic Absurd Obscure Somber
—Jeff Pepperworth President & CEOiGPS Logistics
Scale matters for everything shortages.
Home Depot, Walmart, and Costco are among those who can charter entire vessels to ensure capacity. Companies from Nike to Amazon increased air freight, despite costs of up to $2 million a charter.
Large fast-moving consumer goods firms can procure more of everything from raw materials to packaging and transport. Large retailers can purchase "panic pallets" and absorb the inventory costs. They have the means to lessen exposure as compared to the markets overall.
—Susan Beardslee Principal Analyst, Supply Chain Management and LogisticsABI Research
Biggest dumpster fire ever.
—Chris Peckham VP, OperationsFreightPlus
Buckle up for the ride.
—Darlene Wolf SVP, Strategic PartnersArrive Logistics
One down, two to go.
Supply chains have weathered the first phase of the pandemic—with immediate impacts like manufacturing disruptions and demand swings. We are now in phase 2; we are seeing the non-intuitive impacts resulting from a complex ecosystem, for example, container capacity and raw material supplies. In phase 3, we will understand the new normal and demand will have been adjusted for the abnormal swings experienced in phases 1 and 2.
—Allen Jacques Industry LeaderKinaxis
Everybody's rethinking their supply chain.
—Mark Robinson PresidentUPS Capital
Antiquated processes unearthed significant disruption.
—Michael Hung CEOCBX Software
Strained, unreliable, and under supported.
—Allen Polk VP, SalesKenco
Unprecedented, volatile, dysfunctional, but hopeful.
—Neil Wheeldon Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer BDP International
Evolving at an accelerated pace.
—Greg White SVP, Corporate DevelopmentTrueCommerce
Opportunity to improve business strategies.
—Greg ForbisEVP, Strategy & Business DevelopmentRJW Logistics Group
Bottlenecks, bullwhips lead to resiliency.
—Christina ValiDirector, Client SolutionsTecsys
A massive broken unpredictable mess.
—Kevin LedversisSales DirectorNewcastle Systems
Global, volatile, long, expensive, recovering.
—Arjun Chandar Founder & CEOIndustrialML
Opportunity to excel and evolve.
—Bruce LancasterCEOWilson Electronics
Unbridled consumerism causing record delays.
—David Bowers VP, Warehouse OperationsTA Services
A digital revolution is happening. Massive disruption, wild unpredictability, and sky-high customer expectations have combined to produce a perfect storm for global supply chains. Shippers have no choice but to abandon outdated ways of working and get on board with the digital revolution at hand.
—Virgil Ferreira COO Rate ManagementMagaya
A slow moving goat rodeo.
—Dale Young VP, Warehousing & DistributionWorld Distribution Services LLC
Necessity = mother of invention.
—Tom MartucciVice President & Chief Technology OfficerConsolidated Chassis Management
More capacity starts with labor.
—Gregory W. TuthillChief Commercial OfficerSeaCube Containers
Congested. Essential. Gritty. Painful. Heroic.
How people are overcoming the influx of shipments and pain points to fulfill orders is heroic.
—Dustin Hansen CEOInXpress
Disruption, uncertainty, watershed, risk-managed, digital.
Over the past 20 months, supply chains have been faced with unpredictability and disruptions on a global scale. 2021 has shown supply chains need to become more resilient and adapt digitally.
—Mick Jones Strategic Supply Chain Advisor Zencargo
Pushing limits and prioritizing people.
—Sean Elliott Chief Technology Officer/Chief Digital Officer Körber Supply Chain
Congestion, volatility, complexity meet perseverance.
—Patrick Campbell U.S. Chief Operating OfficerCoyote Logistics
Challenging, underinvested, ripe for disruption.
—Gonzalo Galindo HeadCEMEX Ventures
Small bottlenecks create major disruptions.
—Nathan Strang Director, Ocean Trade Lane ManagementFlexport
Ripe for digital disruption.
Particularly for retailers, 2021 revealed the urgent need for innovative supply chain strategies and disruptive technologies.
—Guy BlochCEOBringg
We need operational resilience now.
—Jennifer Bisceglie CEO & FounderInteros
High demand, over stressed, lacking.
—Lonny Holston Export Operations CoordinatorMickey
Broken, opportunity, opaque, unsustainable, inflationary.
—Scott Evans Co-founderWaybridge
Drinking from a fire hose.
—Patrick J. Allen, CSCPClient Solutions DirectorTransportation Insight
Chance favors the prepared mind.
—Lior Elazary CEOinVia Robotics
SMBs face threat and opportunity.
—Dennis Oates Chief Logistics OfficerSendle
Much Ado About Nothing Delivered.
—Eric Allais President & CEO PathGuide Technologies
Adapt and innovate to survive.
—Alex Wakefield CEOLongbow Advantage
Crisis exposed need for visibility.
—Sam Lurye CEO & FounderKargo
Unpredictable, undersupplied, untimely, underappreciated, understaffed.
Jonathan Parks Senior Vice President, Supply ChainiGPS Logistics
Delayed shipments requiring urgent delivery.
Adam Whelpley Transportation Logistics ManagerMickey
CHAIN: Cautiously Hopeful Against Increasing Neglect.
It is pretty clear that supply chains for decades have been viewed by finance and hordes of MBAs as cost centers to squeeze out inefficiencies and expenses. A continual neglect in regular investment has come home to roost in 2021. Yet, I'm cautiously optimistic about the role of modern technology to, when applied, fix several of the systematic problems we now face.
Jason MurrayCEOShipium
Disrupted, optimized, but still broken.
It needs more attention from IT and logistics professionals to get it fixed.
Dmitri Fedorchenko CEO and Co-FounderDoft
Inflexible, foreseeable, resiliency, fixable, responsible.
Let me explain. We have experienced the perfect global storm of COVID-induced closure of demand followed by almost overnight exponential increase as restrictions lifted, combined with economic and political trade barriers, years of under-investment in modern transportation innovation, and a few accidents (eg. Evergreen's Ever Given) thrown in for good measure.
While these specific issues were perhaps not envisaged, issues do happen and should therefore be foreseeable. What it has done is thrown into dramatic spotlight the inflexibility of our global supply chains, and if we have learned anything it is that we must build in better resilience. We have come to accept that redundancy in supply chains must be eliminated for the cost it incurs; we now need to rethink that logic.
The challenges we currently face are fixable, but longer-term it requires a different approach; one that really understands where the weak points are, what might fail before it does, and to be prepared to fix when it does. It will also require a more responsible circular model that has less reliance on sourcing new materials into the supply chain and more focus on retaining materials within it.
Oliver Lemanski CEOOnProcess
Bring ALL solutions to customers.
Tyler Scogin Senior Account ManagerLeeds, ALTA Services
