Elementum SCM, Inc. Blog Experts Call out Critical Problems with Supply Chains (But Don’t Look to Them for the Solutions)

Over the past decade of working in supply chain, thousands of operators have asked me: how can the industry adopt actionable solutions to increase performance while minimizing cost and risk and execution time? When the pandemic hit, the tone of this question changed substantially, from a nice-to-have, to a must-have. Suddenly, companies found themselves facing massive vulnerabilities in their operations. A generation’s worth of mounting pressure for an efficient supply chain had finally led to a collapse, exposing gaping holes in supply chain’s robustness and health. One operator opined that they almost went out of business when their suppliers were taken over for COVID mask production. Companies scrambled to address these weaknesses, while the commentary from academics and corporations poured in. Overwhelmingly, these third-parties provided lofty advice that overlooked on-the-ground supply chain realities. Take, for instance, this article by Harvard Business Review. Its academic perspective is chock full of idealistic and outdated recommendations, slanted towards upholding the same supply chain model that capsized the industry in the first place. As a founder and CEO of a supply chain management SaaS company, I not only want to debunk these outdated recommendations, but I also want to provide clear and easy to implement solutions that your company can actually take advantage of. Here’s what Harvard Business Review (HBR) got wrong about supply chain, and what we as an industry can do to make it right.