THE TRANSPORT ISSUE
CHAIN REACTION
MANUFACTURING DISRUPTIONS , WILDLY FLUCTUATING DEMAND FOR GOODS AND DELAYS AT INTERNATIONAL PORTS HAVE LED TO MATERIAL SHORTAGES AND DELAYS , WREAKING HAVOC ON TRADIES TRYING TO EARN A LIVING DURING THE PANDEMIC .
H ad to wait longer than normal for materials or tools you ’ ve ordered from a supplier during the pandemic ? Perhaps you ’ ve run into price hikes or manufacturers being out of stock of key components . You ’ re certainly not alone , with tradies across the country running into shortages and delays thanks to that pesky c-word .
So how does a virus that travels by air affect access to the supplies you need to do your job on the ground ? We ’ ve got four words for you : global supply chain disruption .
DOWN THE CHAIN First things first : what is a global supply chain ? Dr Medo Pournader , an expert in logistics and supply chain management from the University of Melbourne ’ s Faculty of Business and Economics , says there are three key elements : supply ( manufacturers and their suppliers ), demand ( retailers and customers ) and logistics ( moving goods from manufacturers to customers ).
Disruption to just one of these areas can chuck the whole supply chain out of balance , but old mate Covid has messed up all three . “ We have seen a lot of disruption in all segments of the supply chain , and that has led to the crisis that we are seeing right now globally – not only in electrical parts but also in many other products as well ,” says supply chain and logistics specialist Associate Professor Vinh Thai from the School of Accounting , Information Systems and Supply Chain at RMIT University .
8 GEMCELL . COM . AU APR – MAY 2022