Author Archives: Ellery

What Have We Learned About Adversity vis-à-vis COVID19?

COVID19 is the latest and worst adversity to global economies in recent memory.  Despite the early warnings in late 2019, enterprises around the world were caught off guard.  Executives could only watch helplessly as borders closed and governments enforced lock-downs that shut many businesses down worldwide.              Despite all our talents, experiences, and knowledge, weContinue reading “What Have We Learned About Adversity vis-à-vis COVID19?”

Supply Chains are All About Flow

Supply chains are about flow:  the movement of product from one stage to the next, from a starting point—a source—to an endpoint—a user.            We call them product streams, demand flows, pipelines.  But supply chains are hardly these as streams and pipelines imply a single fluid in motion.  What flows in a supply chain isContinue reading “Supply Chains are All About Flow”

Admitting Not Knowing What to Do Is The First Step to Problem-Solving

At the height of the Second World War, Great Britain was on the brink of defeat.  The Nazis had conquered the European mainland.  German U-boat submarines were sinking merchant ships from America, constricting critical supplies to the United Kingdom.  The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, was bombing London and other British cities at will, inflictingContinue reading “Admitting Not Knowing What to Do Is The First Step to Problem-Solving”

A Letter to All Industrial Engineers: Time to Rise Up

Dear Industrial Engineer:           I come to you as a fellow Industrial Engineer (IE) with a message.           It’s time for us to rise up.           For years, or should I say decades, Industrial Engineering (IE) has been an un-recognized engineering discipline.            Many engineers—e.g. civil, mechanical, chemical, electrical—look at us as fakes.            IndustrialContinue reading “A Letter to All Industrial Engineers: Time to Rise Up”

The World Needs Supply Chain Engineers

Not leaders.  Not managers.  Not business executives.  We have plenty of leaders, both real and wannabes.  Managers and executives too; we have enough.  We need supply chain engineers.  The global supply chain is a present-day 21st-century reality.  We get much of our goods from all over the world.  We buy shoes from Europe to sellContinue reading “The World Needs Supply Chain Engineers”

Where are the Supply Chain Experts?

Supply chain managers are noticeably invisible amid the COVID-19 crisis. There have been no supply chain executives standing beside national leaders as they made speeches and announcements. There have been rarely any interviews with supply chain experts about how to deal with shortages of food and difficulties in transportation.  If there were, much of whateverContinue reading “Where are the Supply Chain Experts?”

We Need a Playbook and It’s the Last Thing We Need

Many enterprises and countries around the world have playbooks to deal with pandemics such as COVID-19.  These range from ISO standards and those based on the United States’ Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), Center of Disease Control & Prevention, and even the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USARMIID).    But asContinue reading “We Need a Playbook and It’s the Last Thing We Need”

Why Weren’t We Ready for COVID-19 and How Should We Have Been?

The COVID-19 disease is the latest adversity to hit our world and it’s the worst yet.  It also should be the last in how we deal with adversity because how we’ve been dealing with adversity has just been outright awful.    COVID-19 started late December 2019 in China and had spread around the world threeContinue reading “Why Weren’t We Ready for COVID-19 and How Should We Have Been?”

Regular Customers Are Our Geese That Lay Our Golden Eggs

My tenant asked that I don’t increase his rent this year and at the same time requested a month’s delay in paying it.  He’s been having problems with his business so if I would please consider.  At first, I didn’t like to agree.  Finally, I did.  My tenant had been a regular on-time payor andContinue reading “Regular Customers Are Our Geese That Lay Our Golden Eggs”