The Future of the Supply Chain

The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated the vulnerability of U.S. supply chains. One of the painful discoveries of the COVID-19 pandemic was how vulnerable U.S. supply chains are, demonstrated most vividly by the shortage of critical medical supplies and equipment. Supply chain experts agree that measures must be taken to ensure the supply chain of the future becomes more resilient and can withstand another national crisis. "Our healthcare supply chain has been overly reliant on outsourcing, to such an extent that we found ourselves in a dire shortage of PPE that are essential for protecting our frontline physicians and nurses," says Tinglong Dai, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. "To some extent, our healthcare supply chain has totally failed our clinicians and patients. It pains me to say this, but our healthcare supply chain has proven criminally inadequate."'