How the Supply Chain Can Insulate its Risk for the Holiday Season

 

Key Points:

  • Beaird Solutions shares how to beat supply chain issues.
  • Pandemic caused simultaneous spike in demand and drop in supply.
  • The global economy will bounce back one of two ways.

Commentary:

Host Jason Schefferstein discussed the rocky supply chain pandemic trends and its future with President David Beaird of Beaird Solutions.

With the global economy refined to a point of precision, Beaird wasn’t surprised that something like COVID-19 could so severely disrupt the operations and performance across all industries. He explained how the supply chain leverages demand with supply, and during the pandemic, the world saw a simultaneous spike in demand and shut down in an uncertain market.

Today people are seeing the effects of failing to plan early. Because of the shift in supply, manufacturers are now finding out they don’t have essential parts or materials needed to create their product/service. While most companies don’t want to keep a supply of inventory on hand due to balance sheets, Beaird recommends it will likely be the differentiator between competition and which businesses can keep their doors open.

“You have this entire inertia to keep inventories low and to keep profits maximized… then if you don’t have the inventory in place, there’s nothing you can do. And then you’re missing sales,” Beaird said.

So how will the economy bounce back? The world is going to go one of two ways:

  1. When things stabilize, it will go back to the global economy processes and operations that was seen pre-pandemic.
  2. Regional or hemispheric economies will arise and decouple the previous global situation.

However, while option two sounds beneficial for many reasons, like increasing American jobs and creating more American-made products, wealthy business owners will likely have to bring their overseas operations back home. While this will bring more jobs, it will also mean higher labor prices, causing the product price increase.

The question lingering is… will Americans be willing to go for that?

More Stories Like This:

Will Manufacturing “Reshore” To Fix Supply Chain Bottlenecks?

Will Consumers Be Seeing Higher Prices as the Result of the Tightened Supply Chain?

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

digital freight invoicing
ODeX Is Leading the Charge in Digital Freight Invoicing
April 24, 2025

Global shipping continues to grapple with fragmented billing processes, often delaying cargo movement. According to McKinsey, adopting an electronic bill of lading could save $6.5 billion in direct costs and enable $40 billion in global trade. As vessels carry goods for thousands of shippers per voyage, the administrative burden of managing and reconciling invoices…

Read More
Human Intelligence Movement
Just Thinking… about Reimagining Education for the AI Era with the Human Intelligence Movement
April 24, 2025

As artificial intelligence reshapes education, work, and daily life, educators are grappling with how to prepare students for a future where human skills—not just knowledge—will be paramount. In fact, a growing number of reports highlight that employers increasingly value collaboration, communication, and emotional intelligence over memorized content. Amid this transformation, the Human Intelligence Movement…

Read More
The Value of a Restoration Team with Healthcare Experience
The Value of a Restoration Team with Healthcare Experience
April 24, 2025

In this episode of Inside Restoration & Recovery, host Martha Lewis welcomes Jason McClaren, Director of Facilities Operations at Reunion Rehabilitation Hospitals, to discuss the critical advantage of partnering with a restoration team experienced in healthcare. A former firefighter and military veteran, Jason has spent the last decade managing safety, risk, and emergency preparedness…

Read More
Science of reading
Educators Must Combine 1:1 Tutoring with the Science of Reading to Close the Reading Gap
April 23, 2025

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system faced a seismic shift. Learning loss, especially in foundational literacy, was a national crisis. In 2024, only 31% of fourth graders in the U.S. were reading proficiently, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Meanwhile, tutoring exploded as a top strategy to recover…

Read More