“Just in Time” Supply Chains > Ransomware
You might think with all the ransomware attacks going on I might care to write about that. Nope, don’t care. What I care about is “Just In Time” (JIT) supply chains. It was what we were taught to do in biz school, optimize the supply chain by removing waste. And even if you saw folly in it, you had to do it or you’d lose to the competition.
The idea is nothing fancy, you don’t want inventory sitting around. The implementation gets complex though. Here’s a bit of pre-Amazon business lore. Wal-Mart was the original cutting edge JIT shop when came up with novel ideas like cross-docking. When freight loads show up at a warehouse from a supplier, you had a truck unload freight into the warehouse, then leave. Then another truck pulls up later and some portion gets loaded back up to go to a store. But what if you just unloaded from one truck right onto the next truck? No more inventory sitting in a warehouse costing money. Put that inventory to work faster, just in time!
Decades later, we have a fully optimized JIT supply chain. No more inventory sitting around collecting dust in a warehouse. But what if your IT systems get scrambled because you ignore the risk of ransomware? Or what if a freak storm wedges a megaship sideways in the Suez Canal? Let your imagination run wild, bottom line is that it happens. And my guess is that it will happen more frequently as things progress. I tried to get some golf cart batteries the other day and the battery shop dude laughed in my face. He said he stopped calling his supplier to ask when they’d arrive because there’s no point to it. Yesterday’s solutions are today’s problems.
Now we’re seeing some buzz around “Just In Case” supply chains. Sounds like prepper talk, yet it’s being written about by the high and mighty lords of business. So this is a good sign for preppers, you’re ahead of the game. The best business minds in the world are just starting to catch up, but it will take them a long time to implement (if they even dare).
Final thought, don’t run out and buy a bunch of meat this week (https://www.americanpartisan.org/2021/06/ransomware-attack-on-slaughterhouses-affecting-meat-markets/). Panic buying is a dick move. Hopefully you’re ahead of the game… and you’re on the right track. If not, eat ramen and practice tactical patience. Then buy when the logjam clears.
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About the Author: NC Scout
NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .
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GUNS N GEAR
5
It has been said many times before. If you want something really snafued, let the government get involved.
“Panic buying is a dick move. Hopefully you’re ahead of the game… and you’re on the right track. If not, eat ramen and practice tactical patience. Then buy when the logjam clears.”
Wisdom
It all comes down to money. Which is more painful financially, having goods sit in a warehouse waiting to be be bought and distributed or losing business to a competitor because you don’t have the inventory to fulfill an order?
Timely post…Folks should already have preps (meat preps in cans/freeze dried/etc.) I can just hit my offsite cache for resupply, plus we buy local, local, local as much as possible too.
The whole crypto/ransomware thing hitting Company A, also hammers Companies B thru Z as unintended consequences move downstream, as they are ALL interconnected and dependent upon each other to dance to the same music…
We will see more of this being outed in the news, it happens often now, and the vast majority either pay the ransom or say #$%^ off, and restore from backups, assuming they have solid copies…
Given the JIT timing, most grocery stores have maybe 3 days, usually less on-hand, and rely upon daily deliveries..
Imagine a crypto attack, food disruptions and the EBT/SNAP cards going down…
Good article here on timeline of JIT failure: https://dailyreckoning.com/just-in-time-when-the-trucks-stop-america-stops/
pdf version : https://www.trucking.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/When%20Trucks%20Stop%20America%20Stops.pdf
Re: EBT disruption: though I wasn’t here to see it, years ago the contractor in charge of EBT in my area made a mistake about money on people’s cards…the result? Multiple Walmart’s got looted because people thought everyone else would be snapping up food.
If EBT is deliberately messed with…well I’d not want to be within 30 miles of where I live currently.
Its worse than the JIT and Walmart/box store. The industry I’m in we are finding it impossible to find pipe of all assorted sizes and materials, anything in big quantities, we’re talking like projects 1000s of feet. All these projects have valves and fittings, that we cannot get from the suppliers. If you have the pipe then its the Nitrile gasket that is impossible to find, because the of the so-called killer disease needing it for gloves. There is no sheet aluminum to be had either, previously super high lumber prices, now its sheetrock that is a problem. There is no end to this and the JIT’s are going to get us all in trouble. Oh then the Govt. Funded projects require any materials in Iron and Steel to be American made, aka AIS, guess what you can’t get your hands on right now, most anything AIS. There are going to be some really unhappy municipalities losing some funding soon, and contractors being potentially fined because of the AIS issues.