There are many lessons we can take from the COVID-19 Pandemic. A main point is America’s overwhelming dependency on offshore suppliers. Dependency being the optimal word. Of course there are advantages that contributed to our dependency of foreign manufacturers such as low labor costs and supply costs. The problem is when we neglect our domestic supply chain for cheaper alternatives leaving domestic supply chains vulnerable. Why is it so crucial to support your local supply chain before a crisis?
You may want to consider keeping a balanced supply chain. This means having a reliable domestic partner to ensure you will get your products on time, every time in addition to having foreign suppliers that will supply you for lower costs. Even without a crisis, shipments go wrong coming from offshore such as India. Your supplies could be held up in customs, or your supplies could be damaged during shipment which is time lost. If this scenario occurs, you would be protected if you had a reliable American supplier. The more you use an American manufacturer, the more the products, expertise, and manpower they will have to meet your needs.
At JohnPac, we take pride in being a trusted American resource. We are both an American manufacturer and supplier as well as a company with the expertise to manage your import supply chain. This approach allows us to be flexible, which in return lets us be an agile supplier for you.
You may pay .40 cents for small woven polypropylene bags for us to produce at our American plant. However, you will have your bags at your company’s door within 4-6 weeks. You may pay 50% less per bag with a foreign manufacturer, but it will take from 3-4 months for your bags to come in…that is if everything runs smoothly with production, weather, economics, shipping, customs, and quality, minus a pandemic! This is a huge gamble and a long wait. You may run out of inventory on your small woven bags by this point.
Our neglect of local sourcing is an eye-opener of this pandemic. We weren’t ready. As a nation, we were not prepared for extended lead times of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Producers of this product did not have enough staff for domestic manufacturing because we are accustomed to lower production volumes since these products are mainly imported. Fortunately, every crisis has a silver lining. We can take the hard facts that America needs more turnkey USA manufacturing and this can only be achieved by supporting domestic suppliers.
