Why There are Now So Many Shortages (It's Not COVID)

The supply chain version of living paycheck-to-paycheck. Get the flu and miss a few days of work. Paycheck is short. Overdraft fees hit further reducing your balance. Then the late fees kick in when overdrafts stop being covered. Skip the car payment to make rent. Borrow money from your cousin for the kid's school supplies. You'll catch up eventually. Maybe.

6 months from now we're going to see a video from Wendover titled "Why Every Rental Car in Alaska is a Toyota"

The boba tea thing is really funny actually, because in Australia a "make at home" boba tea company called "bubble tea club" popped up during covid as the two owners were layed off DUE to covid and said "screw it, why not?" and now they ship internationally lol.

17:26 - 17:33 is my favorite takeaway from this video. SO MANY people are only interested in short term gains, NEVER playing the long game, thats a life lesson. always play the long game. invest in yourself and be consistent so that you can adapt for changes when they inevitably happen.

"They ignored huge swaths of The Toyota Way, and created a system that's less effective and less resilient, but can impress shareholders through short-term savings." Sums it up in one sentence. Really great video!

Can’t get a graphics card Wendover: And I took that personally

Seriously, after this COVID disruption to supply chain issues (ie. lack of semiconductor chips), every country should have their own manufacturing facility to avoid supply disruptions. Canada should have their own manufacturing facility. Sure it may be more expensive (due to mostly labour cost), but it should ensure constant supply and less price fluctuations. The world cannot just rely on China and India to manufacture critical materials like medical supplies/medications and semiconductors.

There might be an economical turmoil but there is no doubt that this is still the best time to invest.

"Less effective, less resilient, but can impress shareholders through short term savings." You just described pretty much every single company out there

The main problem can be summed up in the statement you made at 17:40 - Constructing a resilient supply chain requires long-term thinking, but most companies have not nurtured an environment that allows for that.

The archival footage of the factories in Japan is genuinely cool

It's fascinating that the auto industry had these problems recognizing which parts of their supply chain should be flexible and which shouldn't. Car construction today is based around identifying 'crumple zones', parts of the car that can flex and compact to absorb energy in a crash, around a rigid frame. Their supply chain is no different: some parts can flex and some must remain rigid for it to work.

I can’t believe he led with a seemingly obscure explanation of the boba supply chain back to Taiwan but then didn’t revisit the Taiwanese connection to semiconductor production dominance at the end of the video

"Just in case" morphed into "Just in time", now we are facing "Just too late"

"A ruthless pursuit of short term profit, at the expense of long term gain is the cause". A truer statement has never been uttered!

Happy to see it at least got a mention that one of the keys to TPS was the elimination of rework/getting it right the first time. More companies should pay attention to this!

I knew from your title of the video that "Just in Time" manufacturing was going to be one of the causes you stated. I spent 26 years going between jobs in the air freight, ltl trucking, warehousing, and logistics industries and I saw "just in time" in action and just how customers got screwed up because they relied on it too much. I can't tell you the amount of times (it would definitely be over a hundred) I heard "we got to get it there because they're going to have to shut down a line if we don't". It's no wonder that during the covid crisis, that the problem would be exacerbated !

The quarterly report has become the bane of humanity.

WOW.... As a young engineer in collage, I remember learning all about JIT production... Now I can understand how things can go right, and go wrong.

A similar argument can be made about building maintenance and energy production. False profitability calculations being used to justify getting rid of maintenance staff or cleaning staff in favor of contractors with no vested interest in the company. Contractors often profit by ignoring a problem they recognize but aren't responsible for to increase costs.