Strikes and potential strikes have plagued the supply chain over the last few years. An analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Economics Policy Institute concluded that the number of workers involved in major strike activity increased by 280% in 2023 from 2022. Currently, the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports are facing the threat of another dockworker strike after they return to the negotiating table in January to attempt to resolve the remaining wage and automation issues. Similarly, Boeing is continuing to contend with a machinists strike.
Strikes, or even the threat of a strike, can cause significant disruptions across the global supply chain and have a massive economic impact. For example, when U.S. railroads were facing the threat of a strike in 2022, many companies redirected their cargo to avoid work stoppages and unhappy customers. If the strike had occurred, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) estimated that the economic impact of a railroad strike could have been $2 billion per day.
Similarly, although the U.S. West Coast ports avoided a strike in 2023, the labor negotiations caused companies to reroute freight. For example, companies with locations on the East Coast went through the Panama Canal instead of having their cargo land at West Coast ports. As a result, West Coast ports’ market share dipped during this timeframe. Now as the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports try to finalize negotiations to seal the deal with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), companies are searching for alternative routes and transferring their shipments back to West Coast ports. The economic impact of the strike is estimated at $3.8 to $4.5 billion per day by J.P Morgan.
Labor negotiations also threaten to further exacerbate inflationary trends, which have been a key concern across the supply chain. The ILA and port operators reportedly reached a tentative agreement to increase wages by 62% over the next six years. Similarly, the Boeing machinist strike, which lasted seven weeks, was finally resolved when union members voted to accept a 38% pay raise over the next four years. These wage increases come as companies and consumers across the spectrum are resisting increased costs.
Nor are these strikes completely focused on pay increases. The ILA is also demanding a total ban on the further automation of cranes, gates, and container movements that are used in the loading or loading of freight. This issue still remains unresolved. Such a ban would not only increase costs, it would also threaten the competitiveness as the U.S. ports, which are already some of the least competitive in the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, L.A. and Long Beach ports are about half as productive as China’s best port in terms of average container moves per hour.
Creating a Resilient Supply Chain
Labor unrest and strikes have caused executives to open their eyes to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) in their supply chains. Many are responding to the volatility and disruptions by working to create more resilient supply chains.
No company can thrive in a disruption-ridden environment if it is not prepared to pivot as conditions change. However, preparation alone will not suffice. To thrive in a VUCA world, companies should be ahead of changing conditions or perhaps flip the situation on its head to become the disruptor instead of the disrupted. As the competition struggles to maintain customer service levels, profitability, and working capital requirements in the face of disruptions, companies with a more resilient supply chain will gain market share.
There are several strategies to create a resilient and proactive supply chain. The most successful approaches include rethinking strategies, upgrading business processes, and automating and utilizing advanced technologies. The bottom line is to create resiliency/flexibility, quick responsiveness, and upgraded performance.
Rethinking Strategies
Old strategies will no longer suffice in this more volatile world. For example, producing in China to reduce labor costs provides no resiliency when chokepoints arise in the global supply chain and/or as geopolitical risks surge. For example, the Red Sea crisis has created a supply chain chokepoint, delaying goods transiting from northeast Asia to the East Coast of the U.S. and Europe. Container ships have re-routed around the southern tip of Africa, adding cost, time, and other risks to the trip. As labor disputes and/or strikes arise, the risk increases that the product will get stuck or delayed in transit. If there are strikes on the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, ships will have to divert to the West Coast and be shipped across the country, adding time and cost. By moving manufacturing closer to customers and consumers through reshoring, nearshoring, and vertical integration efforts, these risks are mitigated. If local disruptions do occur, companies can recover quicker due to the shorter distances, quicker lead times, and greater control.
Thus, proactive executives are rethinking their manufacturing and supply chain network. For example, Ascential Medical and Life Sciences last year expanded its domestic manufacturing footprint, opening a 100,000-square-foot facility in Minnesota that will produce custom manufacturing machinery and solutions for medical and life science companies. The facility is part of a broader reshoring effort by the company.
In a similar vein, many companies, such as GM, Samsung, and Dell, have followed a nearshoring (also called friendshoring) strategy to Mexico. By moving closer to customers, they not only are more resilient but also can take advantage of trade agreements, such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as well as lower regulations and costs.
In addition to moving manufacturing, companies are also diversifying their supply base. They are pursuing strategies such as adding backup sources of supply, establishing strategic partnerships and joint ventures, and vertically integrating their supply chain.
Upgrade Business Processes
The most successful companies are aggressively upgrading strategic processes to support resiliency, customer success, and profitability. For example, rolling out an SIOP (Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning) process can help companies respond more quickly and proactively to changing customer demand and/or supply chain disruptions. Similarly, companies that have upgraded their demand, production, and replenishment planning processes are able to provide customers with higher service levels while also freeing up cash by reducing unnecessary inventory. These upgraded planning processes also improve margins by increasing efficiencies and productivity while reducing waste.
For example, a manufacturer of health care products utilized a SIOP process to better predict revenue and to create a more optimal operational rhythm. The company’s demand plan was translated into machine capacity and critical raw material requirements. By taking this step, the company became aware that it needed to get a backup supplier to avoid a potential critical chokepoint in the supply chain. At the time, the manufacturer was purchasing all of its most important material from Brazil. Due to geopolitical risk in the region, there was the potential for supply chain disruption. To mitigate this risk and ensure reliability, the manufacturer began sourcing 20% of its material requirements from a backup supplier in the United States.
Fast-forward a few years, and there was a port strike that made it difficult to receive the materials from Brazil. The manufacturer’s SIOP process provided a forecast of what was required to bridge the supply gap during the disruption. Because the company already had a relationship with the backup supplier, the supplier was willing to ramp up volume to cover the manufacturer’s supply gap. The supplier prioritized the manufacturer’s increased orders even though the supplier was receiving an overload of requests from other companies. As a result, the manufacturer was able to maintain supply of this critical material and continue to meet its customer service levels. While its competition struggled, the health care manufacture was able to grow its revenue by 15%.
Automate and Digitize
Technology can also help companies respond better to disruptions and volatility. For example, advanced planning systems can help planners can quickly pivot with changing conditions, such as strikes. The most advanced of these systems will be equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that will recommend changes on the fly to satisfy customer needs in the most profitable and least risky manner. For example, as strikes arise, the system will quickly assess changing conditions and recommend that the manufacturer move demand to plants and/or routes not impacted by the strike. The planning systems will also provide the planners with a better picture of requirements so that they can change production plans and ensure high service levels for customers.
In the same fashion, companies that automate their manufacturing processes, such as by using robotic welders, can more flexibly respond to changing customer requirements while also mitigating costs. Similarly, additive manufacturing technologies can help companies produce and customize product on demand in responses to changes in customer preferences. By using robotics and automation equipment, manufacturers can run lights out, thereby increasing output and flexibility, while reducing cost. Therefore, if a strike occurs at the manufacturer, some level of production is likely to occur, as long as they can assign a resource to keep the robotics and automated equipment running.
In logistics, advanced technologies can seamlessly sort, package, and move products. These technologies can help companies quickly respond to changing conditions so that packages can be rerouted at any time. Similarly, transportation planning systems can use predictive models to optimize freight costs and reroute shipments in response to changing conditions in the global supply chain, thus ensuring timely deliveries. For example, as strikes arise, the system will quickly assess a company’s transportation network, evaluate alternative routes, and recommend the optimal one. Changes will also be made to current routes for goods in transit so that they meet the customer due dates at the lowest cost.
Delivering Bottom-Line Results
The bottom line is to create a resilient supply chain and craft tomorrow’s supply chain today. Companies that invest smartly in the future will be prepared to take market share as disruptions occur. There will be more opportunity than ever before for those that rethink strategies, upgrade business processes, and automate and digitize their end-to-end supply chain.
About the author: Lisa Anderson is founder and president of LMA Consulting Group Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in manufacturing strategy and end-to-end supply chain transformation that maximizes the customer experience and enables profitable, scalable, dramatic business growth. She recently released SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning): Creating Predictable Revenue & EBITDA Growth that can be found at https://www.lma-consultinggroup.com/siop-book/.
