| The thrill is gone.
You are in the first seat of the intergalactic thrill ride of your life—you got on expecting a few twists and turns; the attendant locked you in the seat; and now your neck hurts, your hands grip the rail, pieces of clothing and popcorn boxes are flying by, and you’ve had enough, you want to get off. But the attendant won’t hit the stop switch, and you and a few remaining ticket holders are hurled along at hundreds of miles per hour, until gravity slows the car to a full stop and you stagger off to solid ground.
When manufacturing and supply chain managers experience the losses and chaos of a big economic shift, their hearts stop, even when they knew the next big “adjustment” was coming. But it’s the tectonic power of the Internet that has made the enormous shockwaves inescapably stronger and more immediate. Even managers in predictably cyclic industries, such as holiday toys, know that although good planning helps to soften the blows, bad news travels at nanosecond speed down an integrated supply chain. It is easier (and faster) to ramp up than to turn off the machines.
Cisco, for example, which is a model of planned outsourcing over global supply networks, shocked the market with a wash of red ink “adjustments.” Other high-tech producers push inventory and capacity responsibilities back onto suppliers as they struggle for a foothold during big swings. Book publishers, automobile manufacturers, appliance producers, retail, and even some pharmaceuticals continue to wrestle for control as violent demand swings jerk them up and down. Second- and third-tier suppliers, the small- and medium-size companies whose growth rates have enriched our economy for years, have had the life squeezed out of them by their bigger customers. Life has gotten ugly out on the periphery of the supply chain, and we have no idea when the ride will stop. |