Over the past two-plus years, global supply chains have been stretched beyond recognition. Yet stretched is not broken, and covid-19 may serve as the launch pad to create a new and improved global supply chain model.
The Biden administration’s response has made key mistakes in handling the emerging threat. We hope this situation serves as a wake-up call to rethink and re-tool emergency response policies and practices.
In the middle of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we're facing a second global, viral crisis: monkeypox.
If “the forecast is always wrong,” is improving forecast accuracy even the solution to our demand planning woes? In times that continue to defy our ability to predict them, the words of famous statistician George Box have never been more right: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” So what can we do to make models more useful? Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can improve forecast accuracy, but a bigger problem is the failure to set accurate expectations around forecasting models, not the accuracy of the models themselves. For supply chains to get more use from their models, we need to “trust the box;” recognize that models are not the holy grail; and remember that a forecast is an input into making better decisions, not an end in and of itself.
It seems like we’re waiting now more than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic, which we were initially told would take just a few weeks to get under control, is now in its third year. Getting back to life as we knew it was more challenging than expected. Supply chain issues have extended lead times and severely disrupted operations across vital industries, including retail, travel, and healthcare.
Ashley Smith
Public Affairs Coordinator
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
[email protected]
443-757-3578
An audio journey of how data and analytics save lives, save money and solve problems.
The test for any breakthrough technology is often where you least expect it, but once it “conquers” that application, even more possibilities may emerge.
Inside Universities Love-Hate Relationship with ChatGPT
New findings from a team of renowned researchers calls for transparency and rigorous oversight of the U.S. Medicare Advantage (MA) program, the United States' largest healthcare capitation program.
Mpox is spreading across several African countries. The World Health Organization declared mpox a “public health emergency of international concern.” The Democratic Republic of Congo has been hardest hit, though Burundi has also seen a recent surge of cases. To date this year, 36,000 suspected cases have been reported, with more than one-half among children younger than 15 years old. In Burundi alone, two-thirds of the recent cases have been in those younger than 19.
The supply chain for many small parcel shipping companies is typically long. Products are often made in distant lands, travel on oceans and waterways, arrive at ports, are then transported to warehouses, from where a third-party logistics provider delivers the product to its intended destination. In a stable world, shippers and customers alike can expect a product to be delivered within the promised time window. However, in a world facing high levels of uncertainty caused by war, pandemic, political instability, raw material shortages, freak accidents (recall the regional and national impact of the bridge collapse in the Port of Baltimore caused by a container ship), and weather, the shipper must work overtime to ensure customer expectations are met at no additional cost, despite these uncertainties.
BALTIM0RE -- Experts say the longer the thousands of port workers strike, including at the Port of Baltimore, the more catastrophic the impacts could be.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban's question to Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, on energy costs took off on social media on Saturday.
Florida lawmakers have banned wind turbines off its shores and near the coast, saying the bill is meant to protect wildlife and prevent noise.