Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis • Hacker News Board

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#81

Post by sushsjsuauahab » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

kmlx wrote: post #14

coolso wrote: post #4

It feels like everyone is trying real hard to come up with solutions that just continue the status quo of having all of our goods produced in China. Just 20-25 years ago we were still making a lot of things in the US. But the American worker, and economy, was sold out to cheap, high-polluting, IP-stealing, yes-lets-ship-it-2000-miles-instead-of-making-it-in-the-US Chinese labor and manufacturing at the benefit of the…

> Why is this not a major talking point? because we live in a globalised world. your phone would cost 10x what it costs now if you moved production to the US. that would mean lots of people without phones, so a much smaller economy. no one wants that. > Americans have been polled ah, polls :) > across the aisle people prefer made in the USA as a European, i have always associated American made with low quality, cheap…

I would pay 10x more for something made in America, because right now the defacto price is infinity.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#82

Post by adolph » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:10 AM UTC

kmlx wrote: post #22

cr1895 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as a European, i have always associated American made with low quality, cheaply made, bad taste and expensive. American products are to be avoided at all times. What informs that viewpoint? It’s really foreign to any perception I’ve ever heard from anyone or experienced myself.

weird. i don’t know anyone who has had a good experience, or who prefers american made products. cars, food, fashion etc. they represent bad taste and poor quality. i thought this was known globally. like how germans are technical. one of those things that are part truth, part myth. where i come from if someone wants great quality we buy european, japanese or chinese products. whenever i travel to different continent…

> of course software is different, due to its globalised nature

Sure, not American, all the American software companies. They are global, unlike every other giant enterprise.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#83

Post by ryukafalz » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:12 AM UTC

hammock wrote: post #52

AngryData wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can cargo ships with empty containers actually sail back? In the past we shipped tons of alfalfa to China, partially because meat (and thus cow feed) is worth more in China, but I was under the impression that the main purpose was ballast for the ships because they can't sail without enough weight in them and alfalfa was the cheapest bulk weight they could source.

There is unlimited ballast all around a ship (water)

I'm no expert, but I believe many of these ships aren't designed to transport liquid cargo. In fact when their solid cargo starts to act too much like a liquid, things go south real fast: https://www.theshipyardblog.com/liquefaction-of-bulk-cargo-e...

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#84

Post by Spooky23 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:20 AM UTC

qeternity wrote: post #23

remarkEon wrote: post #2

I'm not sure I agree with the conclusions in this thread. >It seems that everyone now agrees that the bottleneck is yard space at the container terminals. The terminals are simply overflowing with containers, which means they no longer have space to take in new containers either from ships or land. It’s a true traffic jam This seems like definitely not the real bottleneck. You have to ask yourself, "why is there no s…

No, this is not the likely root cause for reasons another commenter notes. But I want to point something out: ports and logistics infrastructure are the most unionized, protected industries that exist. The truckers may not be, but the rest of the value chain is, often resulting in huge inefficiencies. You note something like truckers waiting in lines for hours but only getting paid when they move the goods. 1) they a…

Every system has a downside. Container freight is awesome, but it creates systems that have to constantly move. When the systems stop you get whiptail effects that can cascade.

Ports are natural chokepoints. Just like Apple or Google or Facebook extracts a toll, so too do the ports, longshoremen, port truckers, etc. Their rent seeking is baked into the system.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#85

Post by recursive4 » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:22 AM UTC

drcode wrote: post #63

graton wrote: post #60

Related: The mayor of Long Beach has increased the stacking limit. https://mobile.twitter.com/RobertGarcia/status/1451679404757...

It's weird to me that thousands of people work at the docks or with the trucks, and likely understand these problems quite well, but only after a silicon valley guy rented a boat to take a look and tweeted about it did it come to attention of the larger world. Is it just that these other people don't want to "rock the boat" at their place of employment?

Monopolies assume all forms.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#86

Post by CalChris » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:25 AM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #69

drcode wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird to me that thousands of people work at the docks or with the trucks, and likely understand these problems quite well, but only after a silicon valley guy rented a boat to take a look and tweeted about it did it come to attention of the larger world. Is it just that these other people don't want to "rock the boat" at their place of employment?

It’s not clear to me whether the zoning regulation was changed in response to the Twitter thread.

Petersen is well thought of and his analysis and suggestions were copied by other industry types, for example Sal Mercogliano [1]. It also happened very soon after Petersen's suggestion.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERqikbfoLnw

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#87

Post by m0zg » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:27 AM UTC

Buttigieg should have been on that boat. But, as has become a custom lately, he's MIA, just like VP is MIA at the border. Not the worst outcome though - he could also be actively harmful like, say, Mayorkas.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#88

Post by markdown » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:31 AM UTC

huitzitziltzin wrote: post #47

Which of the two chief executives tagged in this Twitter thread is supposed to have the legal authority to unilaterally overrule Long Beach’s zoning ordinances? Surely it isn’t newsom, but I bet Biden has even less authority. This is not a judgment on the merit of the idea bc the zoning rule seems dumb but what’s the point of proposing a “solution” which it isn’t clear either man can actually implement?

You're telling me the "most powerful man in the world" can't declare a state of emergency and temporarily suspend local government zoning laws?

Hilarious if true.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#89

Post by davidjfelix » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:34 AM UTC

aptxkid wrote: post #51

It sounds more like deadlock than a positive feedback loop (also it’s weird that he calls it negative feedback loop).

I wouldn't say it's weird -- it seems like you understood what he was saying and he misspoke. Clearly he was trying to indicate that he believed that something negative was increasing. While I agree this isn't what a negative feedback loop is, I can see how saying this is a positive feedback loop of slowdowns (an undesirable negative effect) might feel like the wrong thing to say.

Re: Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

#90

Post by dragonwriter » Sat, Oct 23, 2021, 2:34 AM UTC

digikata wrote: post #43

Why isn't the solution to put empty containers back on unloaded ships to be sent away? BTW for fun reading on operations logistics and identifying and attacking bottlenecks see "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_%28novel%29

> Why isn’t the solution to put empty containers back on unloaded ships to be sent away?

IIRC, stacks of empty containers (large surface area and low mass) act as, in effect, giant crosswise sails, which is a dangerous thing on a ship, so you can’t safely stack as many empty containers as optimally weighted containers on a ship (too full, and you end up with issues with strength of ship deck and containers at the bottom of the stack, so maximally loaded containers aren’t optimal either.)