Advanced Supply Chain Management-The Great Fridge Freeze Out

Name
Course
Instructor
Due Date
Advanced Supply Chain Management-The Great Fridge Freeze Out
Question two:The MacCarthy et al. 2016 paper states: "Supply chains are not static – they evolve and change in size, shape and configuration, and in how they are coordinated, controlled and managed. New supply chains may emerge for many reasons." and "Not only are economic and technology drivers affecting supply chains but regulatory frameworks, sustainability agendas, political factors, and strategic choices are affecting the structure and configuration of supply chains." The podcast episode refers to specific consumer behaviour of hoarding. Discuss how this supply chain could have countered the resultant shortages experienced in the refrigerator and freezer supply chain. Please limit your answer to 500 words or less.
The shortage of refrigerators and freezers is closely linked with hoarding during the pandemic emergency lockdown, and the supply chain crisis then spurred further hoarding across the US. The refrigerator and freezer supply chain was severely disrupted as there was increased demand, but the supply chain could not cope, which resulted in shortages. There was a need to manage demand better by considering supply chain interdependencies where none of the supply chains is affected, so too are others, which causes unintended consequences. Categorizing demand for products and the risk of customers postponing their buying decisions would try to deal with the capacity situation by prioritizing the current and future demand.
There are bottlenecks, and capabilities in the supply chain, and complementing this by adding more resources as demand for refrigerators and freezers increased, would have reduced the supply chain disruption. The disruptions further widened as the supply capacity got strained, but better coordination of supply chain activities would have reduced the rate of shortages. Coordination would also necessitate sharing information across the supply chain so retailers would have adjusted their stock of freezers and refrigerators faster. Makers and sellers were already scaling down operations because of the pandemic. The demand shock meant the supply chain could not deal with the surge in demand for appliances, freezers, and refrigerators. The lack of shipping and manufacturing, processing, transportation, and shipment capacity to meet the sudden demand further worsened the supply chain problems causing shortages and delays.
There was a failure in prioritizing short-term demand forecasting, yet as demand surged, more people were hoarding. Thus, the supply chain was over-utilized in some areas. If there had been more accurate forecasting, retailers would have stocked up more refrigerators and freezers above their normal inventory levels. Better demand forecasting would have supported planning, including coordinating activities to facilitate the faster flow of refrigerators and freezers. More resources would also have reduced supply chain disruptions and delays. Based on demand forecasting retailers, would have entered into short-term contrasts suppliers, transport, and main distributors who can supply at higher capacities. Short-term forecasts would have made it easier to manage bottlenecks and supply cha...