Container ships are seen at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California. Congestion at US ports has caused supply chain disruptions, driving up prices and leading to a growing shortage of goods
Image: Apu Gomes / AFP
It may be years before business operations experts pinpoint all of the factors that triggered the ongoing global supply crisis.
Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst, but is not the sole cause, said Robert Swinney, an operations professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
“It’s not a single link that failed in a linear system,” Swinney said. “It is the response of a complex system to major changes in conditions.”
[This article has been reproduced with permission from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. This piece originally appeared on Duke Fuqua Insights]