Risk and Resilience

In his book The Power of Resilience: How the Best Managed Companies Manage the Unexpected, MIT’s Yossi Sheffi describes the rising vulnerability on all sides of the supply chain: more distance, more players, more variety, more technology, more complexity. Companies must look to their chief supply chain officers to ensure that the supply chain is resilient to disruption. For many businesses, supply chain disruption is the largest operational risk.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has illustrated the devastating effects that a global pandemic can have on all facets of our society. We must do better to prepare for and respond to future pandemics and biological incidents. Per Executive Order (EO) 14001, “On a Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain,” the enclosed public health supply chain resilience strategy aims to design, build, and sustain a long-term capability in the United States to manufacture supplies for future pandemics and biological threats.

After a year of 600,000-plus dead due to the criminal leadership of the previous administration, 20,000 people murdered, close to 40,000 people dying in road accidents every year and maybe over a hundred people dying in a building collapse in Florida, I do not see worrying about what could have been if somebody did eat a razor... 

There have been numerous stories in recent days about problems with the supply chain as the economy starts back up after last year's unprecedented shutdowns. Everything is connected and a hiccup here or there can cause delays and price increases for you and me.

The online Symposium will feature weekly themes including Future of Work, Digitalization Trends, Security, Privacy & Data, New Technologies, Economic Impact of Technology, and Enterprise Culture & Leadership. Attendees will learn how to leverage these insightful technologies to create nimble organizations in light of COVID-19.  Panel discussions will be led by CIOs and MIT thought leaders, including Dr. Yossi Sheffi, Keri Pearlson, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, and George Westerman.

Whether it’s appliances, groceries, electronics, toys, or hardware supplies, most retailers have been affected in some way by COVID-19′s disruption to the global supply chain... Dr. Yossi Sheffi, an MIT professor who specializes in supply chain management, said reduced air travel is going to impact items imported from overseas, like iPhones and computer chips.

In this episode of The Rebound, Yossi Sheffi shares insights into how leading companies are adapting to COVID from his latest book.

What if supply chains performed exactly as designed? The problem was a breakdown of supply chains. Rather, that we had the wrong design for the current circumstances. Perhaps what we need is a new, resilient design, one that can respond to disruptions today and in the future.

Driven by the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, companies have created “corporate immune systems” to recognize and manage large-scale disruptions quickly, according to a new book from Yossi Sheffi, a supply chain professor at the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT).

Bloomberg Baystate Business for Wednesday August 26th, 2020. Hear from Professor Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, on global supply chain concerns, as well as other professionals on various current business topics. 

This interview is featured in the Supply Chain and Logistics section of EPCA Q2 Newsletter.