Crain's Detroit Business: John Taylor on current supply chain difficulties
Manufacturers of a host of products – from cars, plastic toys, clothing, furniture, and appliances – are experiencing an increase in the cost to make products, resulting in higher shelf prices as companies look to protect their bottom lines. Further complicating matters, shipping delays have persisted, and some employers cannot lure enough workers to handle record demand, leaving millions of dollars in lost sales on the table. John Taylor, a supply chain management professor at Wayne State University, described the ‘bullwhip effect’ in the market. “The phenomenon that always happens is you start getting hoarding, leading companies to have to build inventories,” Taylor said. “Everybody is stocking up. It makes offering consumer choice more difficult.”
