More U.S. Factories Won’t Fix Your Supply Chain Mess
“Let’s bring manufacturing home!”
This sounds like a straightforward solution to the disruptions currently plaguing the supply chain—which have only been amplified by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so simple.
Supply chains are big, complex systems. We can shift certain pieces left or right, but that doesn’t mean we’ll see immediate relief. Take oil, where conventional wisdom might suggest an increase in domestic drilling. Yet ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance feels otherwise, stating it would take at least another year before increased drilling would bring more oil to the U.S. market.
To actually dig out of the supply chain rut, leaders need solutions that help in both the short and long term.
Nearshoring, not reshoring
If we just open up a bunch of factories in the U.S., we’ll own the supply chain from end to end. Right?
Not so fast. The truth is that much of what we consume still comes from the earth in its raw form, and there are limits to where we can get those materials.
