Overcoming Global Supply Chain Bottlenecks
Summary
TLDR在这段对话中,Bill Brooks,Cap Gemini北美运输副总裁,与Bob讨论了当前供应链面临的严重压力。Bill指出,供应链问题的根源在于过去五到十年间对基础设施投资的不足,以及疫情对供应链的冲击。他提到,港口拥堵、卡车司机短缺、仓库自动化水平低以及缺乏高效的软件和云计算技术都是造成当前困境的因素。此外,大型船舶只能在少数港口停靠,进一步加剧了问题。短期内,一些港口已经采取了24小时运营和增加劳动力的措施来缓解压力。长期来看,Bill认为需要进行自我审查,识别问题所在,并在关键领域进行投资,如港口设施、软件和云计算技术。政府在基础设施建设、资金支持、关税和法规调整方面也扮演着重要角色,以帮助打破当前的僵局。
Takeaways
- 📈 **历史投资不足**:过去五到十年,供应链投资不足,导致在面对危机时缺乏弹性。
- 🔄 **疫情冲击**:COVID-19疫情加剧了供应链的压力,导致全球范围内的供应链紧张。
- 🚢 **港口拥堵**:特别是美国南加州港口的拥堵,是供应链问题开始显现的地方。
- 🚚 **运输行业问题**:卡车司机短缺和运输行业的挑战被广泛记录,影响了货物的运输。
- 🏭 **仓库自动化不足**:缺乏自动化、机器学习和流程软件导致仓库效率低下。
- 🌐 **技术投资**:需要投资于能够加速供应链流程的技术,包括云计算和软件解决方案。
- 🚢 **巨型货船问题**:巨型货船只能在少数港口停靠,这限制了物流的灵活性。
- 🛍️ **消费需求变化**:疫情期间,消费者减少了旅游休闲支出,增加了对实物商品的需求。
- 🎉 **节日购物季挑战**:预计节日购物季将因供应链问题而面临产品短缺。
- 🔧 **短期解决方案**:一些港口提出24/7运营,以及通过巴拿马运河将货物转运到东海岸港口。
- 🔮 **长期策略**:需要进行自我审计,识别问题所在,并在关键领域进行投资,如港口设施、软件和技术。
- 🏛️ **政府的作用**:政府在基础设施建设、资金提供、关税和法规调整上可以发挥重要作用。
Q & A
目前供应链面临的主要问题是什么?
-供应链目前面临的主要问题是严重的压力和瓶颈,这主要是由于历史上的投资不足、COVID-19疫情的冲击、全球市场的同步问题以及对某些关键港口的过度依赖等因素造成的。
Bill Brooks认为供应链问题是如何开始的?
-Bill Brooks认为供应链问题始于多年前对供应链投资的不足,以及当COVID-19疫情发生时,供应链系统受到的压力。此外,全球范围内的困难,如海外市场的挑战,也加剧了这些问题。
在供应链中,哪些环节首先显现出了问题?
-供应链中首先显现出问题的环节是港口,特别是南加州的港口。随后,这种堵塞效应像多米诺骨牌一样影响到了内陆铁路设施、卡车运输设施等。
Bill Brooks提到了哪些供应链环节的弱点?
-Bill Brooks提到的供应链环节的弱点包括港口的压力、卡车运输行业的人力短缺、仓库自动化和机器学习的缺乏,以及流程软件和云计算的不足。
为什么大型远洋货轮的建造可能导致供应链问题?
-大型远洋货轮只能在少数港口停靠,这意味着这些港口必须处理大量的货物,导致拥堵和效率低下。除非在其他港口进行更多的投资,否则这将导致未来的困难。
即将到来的假日购物季可能会面临哪些挑战?
-假日购物季可能会面临的挑战包括产品供应有限,因为供应链的堵塞导致商品被积压在仓库和船上。需求如果保持不变,将导致消费者难以找到他们想要购买的产品。
短期内有哪些可能缓解供应链问题的措施?
-短期内可能缓解供应链问题的措施包括一些进口商租用较小的船只进入替代港口、港口24/7开放以及与劳动力提供者协商寻找新的解决方案等。
长期来看,如何解决供应链中的问题?
-长期来看,解决供应链问题需要进行自我审查,诚实地评估自身在供应链中的弱点,然后投资于这些领域,比如改善港口设施、投资软件以提高调度效率,或者采用云计算来加快审批流程。
政府在解决供应链问题中可以扮演什么角色?
-政府可以通过基础设施法案提供帮助,这不仅包括道路、高速公路和桥梁等,还可以包括对港口和铁路设施的投资,或者为私营部门提供贷款,审查和调整关税和法规以适应当前的需求。
Bill Brooks认为哪些因素导致了供应链投资不足?
-Bill Brooks认为,过去五到十年间,企业倾向于将利润放入口袋而不是重新投入业务,这导致了供应链投资不足。此外,对供应链的依赖和缺乏应急准备也是一个因素。
在当前供应链危机中,消费者可能会遇到哪些具体问题?
-在当前供应链危机中,消费者可能会遇到产品短缺、交货延迟、价格上升等问题。特别是在假日购物季,这些影响可能会更加明显。
Bill Brooks提到了哪些可能提高供应链效率的技术或方法?
-Bill Brooks提到了自动化、机器学习、流程软件、云计算等技术,以及港口的深度和宽度改进,这些都可能提高供应链的效率。
Outlines
😀 对话Bill Brooks:供应链瓶颈的成因与影响
在这段对话中,主持人与Cap Gemini北美运输副总裁Bill Brooks讨论了当前供应链所面临的压力。Bill指出,供应链问题部分源于过去5到10年对供应链投资不足,以及疫情对供应链的冲击。他还提到了港口拥堵、卡车司机短缺、仓库自动化程度不足等问题。Bill认为,供应链的紧张局势是由多个因素共同造成的,而且这些问题在全球范围内普遍存在。
😓 假日购物季的供应链挑战
Bill Brooks讨论了即将到来的假日购物季可能面临的供应链问题。由于供应受限而需求不变,将导致产品短缺。他提到,疫情期间人们减少了旅游和休闲支出,转而购买更多的实物商品,这已经给供应链带来了压力。Bill认为,短期内可以通过一些措施来缓解问题,如港口24/7运营、增加劳动力、使用软件优化调度等,但这些措施都有其局限性。
🤔 长期解决方案:自我审查与投资
Bill Brooks强调了长期解决供应链问题的重要性。他建议首先要进行自我审查,诚实地评估自身在供应链中的位置和存在的问题。其次,需要在识别出的弱点上进行投资,比如改善港口设施、投资软件以提高调度效率,或者采用云计算技术加快审批流程。Bill还提到,投资回报率(ROI)可能需要重新评估,因为过去的ROI可能不再适用于当前的情况。
🏛️ 政府在供应链改善中的角色
在讨论政府如何帮助解决供应链问题时,Bill Brooks提到了基础设施法案的重要性。他认为,政府在道路、高速公路、桥梁等基础设施的投资,以及对港口和铁路设施的投资,都将有助于缓解供应链的瓶颈。此外,政府还可以通过提供贷款、调整关税和法规来刺激私营部门的投资,以及促进更有效的商业运作。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡供应链瓶颈
💡投资不足
💡COVID-19
💡港口拥堵
💡卡车司机短缺
💡自动化
💡假日购物季
💡短期解决方案
💡长期投资
💡政府资金
💡基础设施法案
Highlights
供应链正面临严重压力,Bill Brooks与Bob讨论了造成当前困境的原因。
过去5到10年,供应链投资不足,利润主要用于分红而非再投资。
COVID-19疫情加剧了供应链的压力,导致了全球范围内的连锁反应。
美国南部加州港口的拥堵问题凸显了供应链的脆弱性。
Bill Brooks指出,应该更均衡地分配进口货物到不同的港口。
卡车运输行业面临司机短缺和运营困难。
仓库自动化和机器学习等技术的缺乏减缓了供应链的效率。
海洋运输公司建造的超大型船只加剧了少数港口的拥堵。
短期内,一些港口提出24/7工作制以缓解压力,但这并非长期解决方案。
节日购物季可能会因为供应链问题导致产品短缺。
Bill Brooks建议,为了长期解决供应链问题,需要进行自我审查并诚实评估问题所在。
投资是关键,需要在识别出的弱点上进行投资,如港口设施、软件和云计算等。
政府在基础设施法案中的作用,包括道路、高速公路、桥梁的投资,对缓解供应链压力至关重要。
可能需要重新审视关税和法规,以确保它们符合当前的经济行为需求。
Bill Brooks强调,尽管短期内可能会有一些困难,但采取关键步骤对未来至关重要。
供应链问题需要行业和政府共同努力,通过投资和政策调整来解决。
Bill Brooks和Bob讨论了供应链问题的多方面影响,并提出了可能的改进建议。
Transcripts
[Music]
overcoming supply chain bottlenecks is
the topic of my conversation today with
bill brooks he is vice president of
north america transportation with cap
gemini hello bill
how you doing bob good to talk to you
again yeah good to see you too thanks
for your time so um obviously we are
seeing a supply chain that is under
severe stress in every aspect
bill
how did we get into this mess
well
lots lots of facets got us there um
one if you look at the supply chain
historically uh five ten years ago we
probably were a little lacks in our
investments
and we were taking advantage of business
as usual
keep
you can do two things with profits you
can either put them in your pocket or
you can put them back in the business
for the most part five ten years ago we
were putting them in our pocket
and and probably not investing at the
rate we should
then you fast forward to the time
whenever we hit covet
and you start straining that supply
chain process and you start putting some
um
wrenches nuts whatever you want to say
is thrown in there in order to cause
trouble with with what was our business
as usual
and so
then you complicate that by the fact
that it's happening worldwide
um
you look at some of our overseas you
know you're having trouble in overseas
markets
just like you're having in the u.s
markets and so you're compounding that
as you go down and that ripple effect
just continues to build and the wave
becomes pretty large when it gets to the
end user is there any yeah is there any
particular aspect of the supply chain
you think that i mean we first saw it it
first seemed to become evident at the
ports and more specifically southern
california ports but then we're hearing
that it backed up in the domino effect
kind of fashioned all the way up to
inland rail facilities trucking
facilities and the like so
i mean where did it start
a lot of it
well
it's hard to say where it started right
i can tell you you know as you look at
that supply chain where we've seen the
weaknesses in the balloon if you will
the ports has definitely been won been
well documented um
the the pressures that they're under um
but when you look at some of those ports
part of that was brought on ourselves
right whenever you have
a handful of ports receiving 40 to 50
percent of our total imports
you ought to see that coming right and
so you know we should do a better job of
spreading out our imports into various
locations if you look at
another portion of it our our trucking
industry our trucking
industry and our lack of jobs and our
difficulty there and manning those
trucks has been documented pretty strong
here lately well we were having this
trouble five years ago we were reporting
the fact that we were short of truckers
in short of areas at that time
and then you you take the warehouse and
the
lack of automation the lack of machine
learning the lack of
processes software's
cloud that could speed up that process
through the supply chain and
specifically through warehouses or
distribution facilities or scheduling
facilities
and you you put all that together and
like i say it's hard to say which one
created it um
because they each had a hand in it and
you know you put covert on top of it and
it comes to life can some of it be put
at the door of ocean carriers though
for building such gigantic ships that
can only call a handful of ports around
the world
that's exactly right i mean you could
you could break down each area and say
that if you look at the shipping and
the large ships the the few areas that
they can enter the
few areas that they can go from point a
to point b and yeah you're going to have
difficulties down the road unless you
invest more in the other ports right
okay unless i turn around and say okay
i'm going to make
my channel in houston deeper and
therefore i can bring more ships further
inland than than what i've been doing in
the past you know there's some of those
investments that can offset it well that
takes time and money and
you know both of which you don't have
whenever you're looking at a at a
balloon that is bursting right now in a
more immediate sense here we are just
now entering the holiday season
what's going to happen i mean are our
consumers and e-commerce shoppers simply
not going to find the products that they
want to buy as a result of stuff being
held up in warehouses and on ships and
on the other side of the ocean
what kind of a holiday shopping season
are we anticipating here
yeah i think that's exactly what you're
going to find you're going to find
a limited supply it's a it's it's simple
supply and demand let's go back to the
economics 101 right
and so whenever your supply is limited
yeah
and and if your demand doesn't change
it's going to cause trouble and it's
going to create again you're not going
to be able to find the products you're
looking for not going to be able to find
you know those toys that you wanted not
going to be able to find you know the
various things but if you back up and
look back a few months ago
um it's
the christmas holidays in the hot and
the holiday season in general
is
is going to be
is going to strain it but if you look
back
a few weeks ago a few months ago
whenever you had covet hit you had less
spending on travel and leisure and more
on material goods more on improvements
to your home and and
more on discretionary spending and
electronics and you know appliances and
things so you you already had a strain
on the system because you know you had
anywhere from five to 25
increases and
and demand on those products depending
on you know which metric you're looking
at which product you're looking at
and then you put the christmas peak in
the holiday peak season on top of that
um
you're you're creating a
time to where your demand is far
exceeding your supply
so what do you do you you start that you
know you try to spread out that demand
as best you can okay well let's talk a
little about what do you do especially
starting with are there any short-term
fixes or any short-term actions that can
at least partially
alleviate this problem i mean we do hear
about certain importers chartering
smaller ships to bring them into
alternative ports and things like that
but that's not a practice that can be
widely done
what do you see in terms of anything we
can do in the short term if at all
to help the salon yeah and there are
things right
you have the the florida ports for
example saying that they'll open up for
business if you can come across from the
pacific come through the panama canal
and and get across to some of those east
coast ports and so they're they're
pushing that that has its own
limitations um as well as cost
associated with that
you're seeing
some of the existing ports saying okay
we're going to be open 24 7.
we're going to talk to our labor
providers and come up with new solutions
there of okay this is a short-term fix
we're not asking for your your workers
to work you know 24 7 for the next 365
additional shifts of workers that could
be yeah yeah in the short term we have
to do some of those things assuming we
have the people
which is another problem we don't have
the people
right in the workforce
so
okay so just very quickly though long
term what has to happen for us to see an
end to this assuming that it's not
chronic i don't know maybe it is but
what are some of the factors that will
help these things along in a longer term
sense
to me i think we have to step back
and we have to do two or three things
one we have to do a self-audit we have
to really be honest with ourselves to
wherever we happen to sit in the
in the chain there
whether that be at a port or whether
that be in a trucking or whether that be
in a warehouse or wherever and we have
to really look at ourselves and be
honest okay where were my difficulties
where we're mine in labor we're mine in
my software was mine and not having
people trained properly and and let me
be honest not only will my bosses and my
workers appreciate that but my
shareholders will and my customers well
right because now i'm trying to solve a
problem but i'm i'm i'm being honest
with myself and what that problem is the
second is then invest in those things
it's one thing to identify where i need
to spend the time it's a second to
actually put my money where my mouth is
and let me go in and and look at some of
those investments that i can make maybe
we we talked about it earlier in houston
and making the you know the channel
deeper maybe it's making my my port
you know more welcoming to larger ships
maybe it's simply investing in software
that enables me to schedule um my my
port trucks
at a more timely basis or my warehouse
easier maybe it's a software that is
using some cloud computing that is very
quickly
uh making the computations in order for
my approvals to be done i mean uh
automatically versus manually maybe i
can i can take some of those investments
and integrate into other aspects of my
business
so that now i have you know i touch it
one time and i input it one time but it
gets all the way down to the end uh
through my system and ties into my
customer even so that those integrations
and and software integrations take out
some of the difficulties that uh you
know are costing us time and costing us
money right now
those
and
return on investments i always look at
the return on investments maybe they
hadn't been as as nice in the past and
maybe that's
why we haven't made the investments and
now i would i would venture to say a lot
of those rois need to be revisited and
you know that they're probably
generating pretty good okay well what
you just described is a is a need for a
boost targeted boost in commercial
private capital investment what role
might government play for instance in
the in the infrastructure bill how
important is it to get that
approved and have some aspect of
government funds flowing to make crucial
infrastructure improvements to help
break this log jam
it'll it'll definitely help um not only
in that infrastructure bill that's
currently you know being talked about
and and and coming down the pipe um you
know into your roads highways bridges
that sort of thing but also investments
in in some of our ports maybe in some of
our railway facilities or maybe it's
making funds more available for our
private sector in order to to get some
of those loans maybe it's looking at
some of our tariffs and some of our
regulations and saying okay you know are
those really generating the behaviors
that we wanted one or two at this time
maybe maybe some of those are outdated
okay that that may have been great five
ten years ago but maybe that's not what
we need now so i think i think the
government definitely plays a role in
how it looks at those those various
items and there's three or four or five
different areas that that you know
they're impacting the
the current problem okay so maybe some
hope for the future of some of these
crucial steps are taken maybe a little
bit of suffering in the meantime but uh
bill brooks of cap gemini thank you for
joining me today to kind of
just analyze this stress that we're
seeing in the supply chain and make some
suggested
suggestions for improvement thank you
very much for being with me today sounds
good thank you for having me as always i
enjoyed it
you
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