Steve Geary on Public Sector Logistics

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Earl Boyanton, a good friend of mine, wrote this piece. He is also a retired Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Before that Earl served decades in uniform with the United States Air Force. Some say Earl is the finest logistician the Air Force ever produced.

While the military does pay considerable attention to suppliers one level away in the supply chain, the Department of Defense also takes a far more comprehensive approach through the National Stockpile.

COVID-19 has reminded us of a few things about supply chain risk management.

Industry has adapted, and the government needs to catch up. Don’t look in the rear-view mirror. You’ll never see that place again.

Since December, the logistics profession has shown that they can effectively get the Covid-19 vaccines to the point of need. Yet getting it to the point of need is not the same as satisfying the patient’s need. Showing somebody the vaccine is not the same as giving the vaccine.

Invisible does not mean irrelevant.

The family went to work. They understood that people still wanted great fresh fish. The demand hadn’t gone away. The distribution channel had.

The mainstream media seems to be treating the coronavirus vaccine supply chain challenges facing us as an afterthought.

By now, significant logistics realignment should be underway in America. Where’s the near shoring? Where’s the reshoring?

The Post isn’t normally a place to learn about supply chain innovation, but this is interesting.