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What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

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Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#451

Post by Aloha »

rsj_hn wrote: post #256

This is like a Rorschach test. There is truly something for everyone. What caused all the supply chains bottlenecks? Hard Left: "It's the fault of *capitalism*!" Hard Right: "It's the fault of *unions*!" Soft Left: "Truckers don't have a living wage!" Soft Right: "We stopped producing because of lockdowns!" Greens: "It's *climate change* disrupting the economy!" Libertarians: "*Government mismanagement of ports!*" YI…

So real answers -

It's not just the port mind you - the whole logistics system is straining.

Broadly, too few workers to move too many things and a heavy reliance on "just in time" manufacturing techniques.

Like the ports are just one component of the issue, so are labor shortages at domestic manufacturers, overseas manufacturers, disruptions from COVID, and all of these things interplaying with one another.

We went from a self optimizing system, that had some risk of someone having too much of something, to a highly optimized system where there was no slack in the system - largely in the name of saving money - if there is less inventory on the shelf, there is less sitting on the balance book, and less that needs financing. Furthermore moving the kind of manufacturing overseas that we have, has increased fragility, both because because it adds obvious choke points - and because it's components that we've moved, so now the ports break down, and it takes 4 months to get a new car.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#452

Post by Natsu »

InitialLastName wrote: post #448
dpweb wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, people buy a lot of stuff they don't need. But I wonder how the dependence on disposable items plays in. I could never understand stressing one bit about the most disposable items like paper towels. Completely non-essential items.

re. paper towels: strictly non-essential items, yes, but it takes some lifestyle reconfiguration to make the alternatives work. My household is (I speculate asymptotically) approaching zero paper towel use, but we have ready access to laundry, the capital and bandwidth to have built up a comfortable supply of rags and towels, and our only occasionally messy coinhabitant is the cat (and you can bet that if he vomits,…

I've really cut down on paper towel usage and I used to use a lot due to having several small animals who are entirely too prone to accidents. I found it best to keep a box of a few dozen small cloths that I got as a bundle, and a small hamper nearby that I throw the dirty ones into, which also happens to be near the washing machine.

I end up doing quite a lot of washing of said rags, but it's far more economical than the paper towels ever were and quite a bit more convenient in general to boot.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#453

Post by ClumsyPilot »

whiddershins wrote: post #301
mfer wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know if a slight price increase in graphics cards is the key issue to worry about at this point. The price increase in graphics cards isn't related to this. GMs trouble selling cars because they don't have enough chips to finish off the cars is a problem related to the pandemic and planning like the posts on Twitter note. The lack of new cars available has driven up prices on used cars. This is all supply c…

The pandemic didn’t kick the machine, the lockdowns and other unprecedented interventions did. So this was a once ever event.

"So this was a once ever event"

Nuclear war is also a once-ever event, so wr shouldn't worry about it,right?

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#454

Post by shubb »

rsj_hn wrote: post #256

This is like a Rorschach test. There is truly something for everyone. What caused all the supply chains bottlenecks? Hard Left: "It's the fault of *capitalism*!" Hard Right: "It's the fault of *unions*!" Soft Left: "Truckers don't have a living wage!" Soft Right: "We stopped producing because of lockdowns!" Greens: "It's *climate change* disrupting the economy!" Libertarians: "*Government mismanagement of ports!*" YI…

In the UK, we like to say it's due to Brexit. Not saying it is or it isn't by the way.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#455

Post by rsj_hn »

shubb wrote: post #454
rsj_hn wrote: post #256

This is like a Rorschach test. There is truly something for everyone. What caused all the supply chains bottlenecks? Hard Left: "It's the fault of *capitalism*!" Hard Right: "It's the fault of *unions*!" Soft Left: "Truckers don't have a living wage!" Soft Right: "We stopped producing because of lockdowns!" Greens: "It's *climate change* disrupting the economy!" Libertarians: "*Government mismanagement of ports!*" YI…

In the UK, we like to say it's due to Brexit. Not saying it is or it isn't by the way.

I can't believe I forgot that one.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#458

Post by Clubber »

throwaway4good wrote: post #106

What it is the alternative to the current just-in-time regime? Warehouses filled with stuff to be sold. Overproduction. Stuff getting destroyed because it expires or cannot be sold for whatever reason. We may get there, hopefully only temporary, as a reaction to the current situation. For most companies, the amount paid to the factory in China or elsewhere, is only tiny fraction of the price the product is sold for.…

Companies should stockpile where they are most vulnerable. I'll give an example. I make (assemble) my own bullets (cartridges) for target shooting.

There are 4 parts: primer, powder, bullet and casing. The casing is the most resilient because I can pick them up and reuse them. The bullet is probably the second most resilient, because in a pinch, I can get molds and pick up and melt down lead and make them. The powder is also pretty resilient because there are multiple manufacturers and all kinds of powder per manufacturer that would work, I would just have to adjust the drop (amount) for the new powder. Primers are the least resilient, because it's hard to replace and also competing manufacturers who make pre-assembled cartridges also need them, so I would certainly make sure I had plenty of those.

Of course, even with all that, there's no way of knowing how long the shortage will last. We're going on a year plus now, and who would have anticipated that?

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#459

Post by chii »

stainforth wrote: post #410
joe_the_user wrote: post #63

I believe the claim is completely defensible and ultimately correct. A) This was a multi-factoral event certainly but all of these other factor are "immediate causes" which can themselves be traced to absolute maximum return on equity as a more final cause. B) No doubt "hard to restart" process are were involved. But the world relies on single-source, hard to restart, large scale production of many things today becau…

B) Buyers are not willing actors

Why is that? they arent forced to "buy" at gunpoint.

Re: What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks?

#460

Post by ClumsyPilot »

cmenge wrote: post #82
mfer wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know if a slight price increase in graphics cards is the key issue to worry about at this point. The price increase in graphics cards isn't related to this. GMs trouble selling cars because they don't have enough chips to finish off the cars is a problem related to the pandemic and planning like the posts on Twitter note. The lack of new cars available has driven up prices on used cars. This is all supply c…

> The US has now outsourced most of the production of goods to places in other countries. I think that is the point (or one of the points): it's not just logistics and spare capacity - it's a much more complex set of issues. This isn't something accounting practices or "less greed" would solve, as seems to be implied in the Twitter thread. Would you have voted for a party that spent $1b annually on mask manufacturing…

"mask manufacturing subsidies for masks nobody even bought? Who could have foreseen that demand spike?"

The entire industrial capacity of USA, country of 300 million people, could produce zero Meltblown, so it could make zero masks. Do you think it's acceptable?

People talk about conflict with China while we depent on them for toilet paper to wipe out butts, it's like a mentall ilness.

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