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The Columbia Press
January 21, 2022
Supply chain:
Explanations
Continued from Page 1
Take a product such as toi-
let paper, for example. Images
of grocery store shelves ran-
sacked of all toilet paper were
often associated with the onset
of the pandemic. Yet the short-
age was directly linked to how
specialized the supply chain
had become, Miller said. Ev-
ery ounce of efficiency with the
production of toilet paper had
been wrung out.
The demand for toilet paper
was very static, he said. There
also are entirely different sup-
ply chains for consumer toilet
paper and for commercial toi-
let paper, which is what vir-
tually every office in America
uses to stock its restrooms.
So when the pandemic hit,
the demand that previously
had been a constant, changed.
Fewer people went to the of-
fice. People spent more time at
home. Not only was the sup-
ply chain so specialized that it
wasn’t prepared for the shift,
the pandemic disrupted every
link of the supply side of the
chain, from factories, to ship-
ping ports, to production fa-
cilities. Workers were laid off.
Everything shut down.
Most manufacturers have
faced some problems with the
supply chain that continue to
delay the availability of goods
today.
Now that the economy is
picking up, suppliers and man-
ufacturers are operating again,
but the supply chain isn’t back
to normal.
Similar to a traffic jam from
an accident on the interstate,
the jam takes time to sort out
even after the accident has
cleared, Miller said.
With the pandemic still a fac-
tor and the supply chain still
jammed, capacity is limited at
every level from production
to delivery. So, suppliers are
making hard decisions about
what goods to prioritize.
Miller is optimistic that, by
summer, goods will be flowing
again, labor wages will rise,
and prices will ease.