Physical Flows: A Metaphor for Supply Chain Evolution

Long after the COVID pandemic has waned, executives all over the world are struggling with disrupted supply chains. By describing the principles of physical flows, Robert Handfield and Tom Linton describe the thinking managers will need in the decade ahead to allow supply chains to flow again. “We have a supply chain where they’re made in all different parts of the world. And one little piece of the world goes bad, and the whole thing is messed up. I said we shouldn’t have supply chains. We should have them all in the United States.”– President Donald J. Trump, interview on Fox Business, May 2020