There’s a lot to cover in the White House’s supply chain announcement on Tuesday. I’d encourage you to read the whole statement. Here are wavetops of what stuck out to me.
- The creation of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, an example of a whole-of-government approach towards critical supply chains and supply chain resilience. I was heartened when Treasury Secretary Yellen began speaking about renewable energy supply chains and “friend shoring”. Council on Supply Chain Resilience appears to be inclusive of all Cabinet secretaries (except Education), and a number of other executive offices. Time will tell what some of these stakeholders have to offer, but it’s probably better to cast a wider net.
- Emphasis upon multilateral efforts for specific purposes: with the EU, through USMCA, through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), with Japan and South Korea, and others.
- Emphasis on data and data sharing (kinda our thing at Data Driven Supply Chain). “The Department of Commerce’s new, first-of-its-kind Supply Chain Center is integrating industry expertise and data analytics to develop innovative supply chain risk assessment tools, and is coordinating deep-dive analyses on select critical supply chains to drive targeted actions to increase resilience. This Center is building broad partnerships across government, industry, and academia.”
- Additionally, the Department of Transportation “is announcing a new milestone for [Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW)], in which participants are beginning to utilize [FLOW data to inform their logistics decision making, helping to avoid bottlenecks, shorten lead times for customers, and enable a more resilient and globally competitive freight network through earlier warnings of supply chain disruption.” (More info on FLOW here)
- Department of Defense “will publish the first ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS). The NDIS will guide engagement, policy development, and investment in the defense industrial base over the next three to five years…focus[ing] on the multiple layers of suppliers and sub-suppliers that make up these critical supply chains.” Later on, the release discusses supplier visibility efforts for major weapon systems.
- Department of Homeland Security “in 2024, in collaboration with other federal agencies and foreign governments, will facilitate at least two tabletop exercises designed to test the resilience of critical cross-border supply chains.” Great opportunity to bring in advanced analytics, simulation, and other data-driven techniques for evaluating supply chains.
- “Interagency effort in partnership with [NOAA] to monitor global developments related to El Niño, including … disruptions to global and trade supply chains”. Rising sea levels and other climate change-related phenomena are an underappreciated risk to global supply chains , although there is an entire venture capital firm devoted to this
- “The Department of Commerce will convene a diverse array of public and private stakeholders at a Supply Chain Data and Analytics Summit in 2024” to discuss supply chain risk assessment models, tools, data flows, and other considerations.
Like I mentioned at the beginning, there’s a lot in here. Highly recommend you read it in detail and take notes.
I left the corporate world to start Data Driven Supply Chain because I knew that COVID-19 shutdowns only marked the beginning of supply chain issues, and I believed (still do) that these problems can be mitigated through the intelligent use of data. It is encouraging to see supply chains have Washington’s ear even though there’s toilet paper on the shelf and Christmas toys for sale.
Data Driven Supply Chain LLC is a Minnesota-based, veteran-owned small business, laser-focused on using data science and artificial intelligence to help our clients tackle their toughest supply chain problems. If we may be able to help your organization, please email ralph@datadrivensupplychain.com or set up a call.