Supply Chain

[goldenvalley]

Here's a fascinating report on the supply chain needed for an American hot tub company to get all the parts it needs and how weather in Texas and problems with getting container ships into port impact it.

The global supply chain is an intricate ballet of container ships, airplanes, trucks and trains. The coronavirus pandemic threw it out of whack. This is why you often can’t buy the goods you want.

Hot-tub maker Bullfrog Spas saw demand soar as homebound consumers upgraded their backyards. Yet its supply chain spans thousands of miles across continents and oceans. On a typical day, its Herriman, Utah, factory takes delivery of 40,000 gallons of chemicals, 400 sheets of plastic and up to 60,000 additional components.

[LFC]

There's a global trucker shortage. In America deregulation and companies turned trucking into such a shitty job that many have left and few want to join. The unpaid time is a big issue as well.

But truck driving also isn’t the job it used to be. In the United States, for example, deregulation of the industry, which accelerated in the 1980s, alongside the decline of unions, means trucker wages have been shrinking for years. But the work itself hasn’t really changed. It involves long hours, and a lot of that can be time spent uncompensated. “You could spend all day or a day and a night waiting around to get a load at a port site offloaded and loaded up, and you’re not getting paid for any of that time,” said Matthew Hockenberry, a professor at Fordham University who studies the media of global production.

This feeds not just into the recruitment problem, but also the retention problem. Truck drivers are burned out. Long-haul drivers, especially — that is, those who are moving cargo long distances or across states — typically get paid for the trips they take, and they have to go where the cargo needs to go, with little control over when and where. “The route is the route,” as Weaver put it.

Anything that comes up along the way — a flat tire, an accident, a traffic jam — could derail that process, and it’s usually up to the truck driver to figure it out. In places like the US, this also adds pressure for owner-operators (truckers who also own their vehicles) or who undertake lease-purchase agreements (paying toward eventually owning a truck). Those hiccups could limit the number of trips drivers make, and with it, their ability to pay off their truck, let alone make a living wage.

The pandemic also accelerated some of these trends. The average truck driver previously waited about 2.5 hours at warehouses, according to a 2018 figure, but closures during Covid-19 and supply chain bottlenecks have made that even more unpredictable.

Around the world, the trucking workforce is aging. In the US, the average age of a truck driver is 46, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations. Across Europe, it’s 44. In the United Kingdom, the average age of heavy-goods vehicle drivers is 53. Some of these folks are nearing retirement, and the risk of getting sick and the uncertainty and early slowdowns of the pandemic helped accelerate truck drivers’ departures from the industry.

“Think back [to] the beginning of Covid, when everything was shut down. An over-the-road truck driver couldn’t even find a place to take a bath, eat a meal, or a lot of other things, because those places were shut down,” said Martin Garsee, executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools. “So if you are on the bubble of trying to think about how am I going to retire, at that point, what would be your answer, if you could retire? Or if you could find another job?”

And for all the reasons outlined above, it can be a struggle to find new recruits to replace them. In the US and Europe, employers have relied on immigrant labor, but, as experts said, that doesn’t fix any of the structural issues, and creates what Belzer called “this constant race to the bottom.”

Congratulations, corporations. You built this. You took a tough job and made it so awful you crushed your own supply lines. Britain made they're situation even worse with Brexit.

Parts of Western Europe, for example, often relied on labor from poorer European countries to fill truck driving jobs, but as those economies improved, those sources of labor became scarcer. The United Kingdom’s truck driver shortages have been exacerbated by Brexit, and the changes to immigration rules that came with it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered 5,000 short-term, temporary visas to some European truck drivers to ease backlogs around the holidays, but few actually took the offer. As one Polish driver told a British outlet, why come back for a few months just to “pee in a bottle on the M25?”

[Bact PhD]

Jan 4, 2022 20:51:38 GMT LFC said:

There's a global trucker shortage. In America deregulation and companies turned trucking into such a shitty job that many have left and few want to join. The unpaid time is a big issue as well.

But truck driving also isn’t the job it used to be. In the United States, for example, deregulation of the industry, which accelerated in the 1980s, alongside the decline of unions, means trucker wages have been shrinking for years. But the work itself hasn’t really changed. It involves long hours, and a lot of that can be time spent uncompensated. “You could spend all day or a day and a night waiting around to get a load at a port site offloaded and loaded up, and you’re not getting paid for any of that time,” said Matthew Hockenberry, a professor at Fordham University who studies the media of global production.

This feeds not just into the recruitment problem, but also the retention problem. Truck drivers are burned out. Long-haul drivers, especially — that is, those who are moving cargo long distances or across states — typically get paid for the trips they take, and they have to go where the cargo needs to go, with little control over when and where. “The route is the route,” as Weaver put it.

Anything that comes up along the way — a flat tire, an accident, a traffic jam — could derail that process, and it’s usually up to the truck driver to figure it out. In places like the US, this also adds pressure for owner-operators (truckers who also own their vehicles) or who undertake lease-purchase agreements (paying toward eventually owning a truck). Those hiccups could limit the number of trips drivers make, and with it, their ability to pay off their truck, let alone make a living wage.

The pandemic also accelerated some of these trends. The average truck driver previously waited about 2.5 hours at warehouses, according to a 2018 figure, but closures during Covid-19 and supply chain bottlenecks have made that even more unpredictable.

Around the world, the trucking workforce is aging. In the US, the average age of a truck driver is 46, according to a 2019 report from the American Trucking Associations. Across Europe, it’s 44. In the United Kingdom, the average age of heavy-goods vehicle drivers is 53. Some of these folks are nearing retirement, and the risk of getting sick and the uncertainty and early slowdowns of the pandemic helped accelerate truck drivers’ departures from the industry.

“Think back [to] the beginning of Covid, when everything was shut down. An over-the-road truck driver couldn’t even find a place to take a bath, eat a meal, or a lot of other things, because those places were shut down,” said Martin Garsee, executive director of the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools. “So if you are on the bubble of trying to think about how am I going to retire, at that point, what would be your answer, if you could retire? Or if you could find another job?”

And for all the reasons outlined above, it can be a struggle to find new recruits to replace them. In the US and Europe, employers have relied on immigrant labor, but, as experts said, that doesn’t fix any of the structural issues, and creates what Belzer called “this constant race to the bottom.”

Congratulations, corporations. You built this. You took a tough job and made it so awful you crushed your own supply lines. Britain made they're situation even worse with Brexit.

Parts of Western Europe, for example, often relied on labor from poorer European countries to fill truck driving jobs, but as those economies improved, those sources of labor became scarcer. The United Kingdom’s truck driver shortages have been exacerbated by Brexit, and the changes to immigration rules that came with it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered 5,000 short-term, temporary visas to some European truck drivers to ease backlogs around the holidays, but few actually took the offer. As one Polish driver told a British outlet, why come back for a few months just to “pee in a bottle on the M25?”

Judging from the ads on my local radio station, the situation with truckers wasn’t much better in the 12-18 months before the pandemic, either. I mean, if your trucking company has to advertise for CDL drivers during “morning drive” time on the radio?!? And, yes, the same outfit is still advertising, as are a couple of local construction companies for tradesmen.

[pnwguy]

What's worse is that many see the era of self-driving trucks a reality within a decade, so that alone will put tens of thousands out of work. It doesn't look like a career with longevity.

[pnwguy]

I ended up bailing on my usual trip to CES in Vegas, given the latest Covid wildfire. But they still offer a fair amount online for registered attendees.

Anyway, John Deere is supposedly showing more self-driving tractors, controlled by GPS. So even the rural farmers, who more and more have become indentured servants on corporate-owned farmland, will see their labor needed less and less. It will be harder to storm government buildings with other assault-rifle-armed Proud Boys if your pickup truck gets repossessed.

But of course, they will still vote Republican...not that there will be any other choice after 2025.

[LFC]

We all heard that the automobile industry suffered from the inability to get computer chips. Here's the part that I never read anyplace. The auto companies basically gave up their slice of chip making capacity at the start of the pandemic and the chip makers simply found other, more lucrative, customers. When the auto makers came back to buy there was no capacity left to sell them.

How Did This Happen?

The crisis dates to March 2020 when the pandemic forced automakers to shut down plants and temporarily halt orders from suppliers. At the same time, the electronics industry faced increased demand for cell phones, televisions, computers, games, and home appliances from customers abiding by stay-at-home orders. Chipmakers rerouted their supply to the electronics industry, which also showed a willingness to pay more for the silicon wafers.

When the auto industry came back online faster than expected in the summer of 2020, it found the chips needed weren't available and suppliers were content to keep their more lucrative contracts with others. Big orders can't be met quickly; it takes about three months to make even the simplest of semiconductors. The auto industry only represents five percent of the chip industry, so it lacked much clout to get what it needs.

Cars use a lot of older, lower-tech "legacy" chips that cost only a few dollars each and have lower profit margins so there is less incentive for chipmakers to invest in more capacity. The low cost of legacy chips belies their importance. Vehicles rely on such chips for everything from door locks and infotainment to brakes and advanced driver assist systems. Advanced wafers that incorporate more chips are more plentiful; suppliers would rather make more sophisticated chips, made with newer technology that can put more chips on a single silicon wafer, and yield a better return.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 8, 2022 21:50:27 GMT LFC said:

We all heard that the automobile industry suffered from the inability to get computer chips. Here's the part that I never read anyplace. The auto companies basically gave up their slice of chip making capacity at the start of the pandemic and the chip makers simply found other, more lucrative, customers. When the auto makers came back to buy there was no capacity left to sell them.

How Did This Happen?

The crisis dates to March 2020 when the pandemic forced automakers to shut down plants and temporarily halt orders from suppliers. At the same time, the electronics industry faced increased demand for cell phones, televisions, computers, games, and home appliances from customers abiding by stay-at-home orders. Chipmakers rerouted their supply to the electronics industry, which also showed a willingness to pay more for the silicon wafers.

When the auto industry came back online faster than expected in the summer of 2020, it found the chips needed weren't available and suppliers were content to keep their more lucrative contracts with others. Big orders can't be met quickly; it takes about three months to make even the simplest of semiconductors. The auto industry only represents five percent of the chip industry, so it lacked much clout to get what it needs.

Cars use a lot of older, lower-tech "legacy" chips that cost only a few dollars each and have lower profit margins so there is less incentive for chipmakers to invest in more capacity. The low cost of legacy chips belies their importance. Vehicles rely on such chips for everything from door locks and infotainment to brakes and advanced driver assist systems. Advanced wafers that incorporate more chips are more plentiful; suppliers would rather make more sophisticated chips, made with newer technology that can put more chips on a single silicon wafer, and yield a better return.

It's amazing how autos are so dependent of electronics for every function.  When my husband's alternator gave up the ghost we couldn't even get it shifted into neutral to make getting it onto the tow truck easier.  

[AnBr]

The chickens are coming back to roost.

[LFC]

For some people this shit just got very, very serious.

Bad news for Halloween enthusiasts. This year, you might be out of luck in the candy aisle.

"We will not be able to fully meet consumer demand," for the October holiday, warned Hershey CEO Michele Buck in prepared remarks about the company's second-quarter results Thursday.

The problem? Consumers are demanding more regular and Halloween-themed candy than Hershey can make, at least right now.

Many consumer goods manufacturers have been struggling to meet surging demand for their products during the pandemic, especially with the ongoing supply chain issues. That's meant that they've had to reduce production of certain less popular items or, as in the case of the late, great Choco Taco, cut them altogether.

Demand for sweets surged during the pandemic and has remained high. Meanwhile interest in Halloween has only gotten stronger. That's bittersweet news for Hershey, which has seen its sales spike — the company reported double-digit sales growth in the quarter compared to last year -— but it has also had to make some production sacrifices.

[jackd]

If that's the worst we have to deal with, thank God!

[LFC]

That's just ... great.

Rail workers could be going on strike soon for the first time in nearly 30 years, which could result in enormous impacts on the wider economy and supply chains.

In a release posted midday Wednesday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said 4,900 members of District 19 voted to reject the tentative agreement they had hashed out with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee alongside a board first appointed by the White House in August.

Negotiations failed after a closed-door meeting at the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington. There is a so-called “cooling off period” limiting union strikes while these negotiations go on, but that’s set to end at midnight Friday. Freight rail workers and the IAM union put an extension on the ratification process until Sept. 29 at 12 p.m.

But there’s far more at stake than a little under 5,000 railroad staff going without a contract. After Thursday, over 100,000 unionized workers on the railroad who haven’t inked agreements with carriers will be legally able to strike all the live-long day. The Association of American Railroads told CNBC they had “no plans to lock out workers Friday should negotiations not be successfully completed.”

It sounds like a lot of long simmering issues are coming to a head.

Freight workers report having to come into work at a moment’s notice, making it near impossible to schedule anything or attend something as simple as their own birthday party. Under the Railway Labor Act, workers are only guaranteed 10 hours off every 24 hours and can expect to effectively be on call all day, every day. Considering the average 9-to-5er is often allowed 16 hours off every 24 hours, it’s easy to see why railroad workers are drawing a line in the sand.