Director’s Blog
Diversifying the Supply Base to Prepare for Disruption in COVID: Now is the Time!
Diversifying your supply base prior to a major crisis like COVID is more important than ever as we go into the winter season. The likelihood of another surge is now becoming apparent, as the cases in Europe and the US […]
“One Word – Are you Listening? – Plastics”: A Critical Bottleneck to COVID Testing
This famous line from “The Graduate” describes one of the major bottlenecks that exists in the PCR testing supply chain, as we learned in our research interviews this week. I am working with a team of faculty and students on […]
Working from Home Versus the Office: Implications for Property Management
I was part of the World Commerce and Contracting (the new version of IACCM) Vibe Summit this past week, and had a great set of conversations with a number of executives about what the current work environment holds. A number […]
Working from Home – Impacts on Commercial Property Markets
I was recently speaking to Nick Swain, from Kinegistics, who shared with me his thoughts on how working from home is going to be the norm. This was a follow-up to an IACCM Vibe Summit webinar I did with Tim […]
Partnership is More Important than Digital Innovation when it comes to Complex Construction Projects
Across all industries, construction management has perhaps been the slowest to adopt digital technologies, and many opportunities exist to drive out inefficiencies. Due to the multi-stakeholder and shifting nature of roles and responsibilities over the life of construction projects, numerous […]
Just How Dire is the COVID Healthcare Global Supply Chain Response? (A Case Study)
One would surmise from some of the political proclamations made in the last few days that the COVID crisis is behind us and that everything is back to normal. Some of my recent research has involved interviews with healthcare physicians, […]
The Hinge Factor in Supply Chains: A History Lesson
An important component of digital dexterity is known as a “hinge factor:” the mental agility to respond to and know what to do with data as it flows into one’s consciousness. As we discussed previously, even as systems evolve to […]
Five Things We Can Do to Get Ready for the Next Pandemic
It’s probably too late to already be thinking about how to fix the bungled response to the current pandemic. We can’t really fix it now that it’s set in motion, as much of the damage has already occurred. However we […]
Force Majeure: A Non-Issue When it Comes to COVID Supply Chain Disruptions
Early in the pandemic, many lawyers were licking their chops, thinking about the stream of force majeure lawsuits that would be coming their way, with manufacturers suing suppliers, and vice versa, all using force majeure as a contractual escape hatch […]
The Next Supply Chain Capacity Expansion Will Be…
In the current environment, the big push for production and the biggest shortfalls in capacity is for test kits. Recent reports identify that the level of testing is far below what they need to be, and despite their best efforts, […]