Skip to content
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
  • (408) 883-8053
  • [email protected]
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Menu
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Resilic Logo
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • Partners
    • News
  • Contact
Menu
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • Partners
    • News
  • Contact
Resilic Logo
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • News
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Menu
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • News
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Menu
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
Resilic Logo
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • Partners
    • News
  • Contact
Menu
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • Partners
    • News
  • Contact
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Events
  • Company
    • About
    • News
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Demo
  • Login
  • Customer Hub
  • Blog
  • In the News
  • Press Releases
Menu
  • Blog
  • In the News
  • Press Releases

Home / Blogs / Re-globalization, Trucks that Talk, and a True Pan-American Highway

Home / Re-globalization, Trucks that Talk, and a True Pan-American Highway

RESILINC BLOGS
Live chat with tom Linton- The state of the supply chain

Re-globalization, Trucks that Talk, and a True Pan-American Highway

Apr 20, 2021

Resilinc

Supply chain regulations, Tariffs and Trade, Thought Leadership

Highlights from our Live Chat with Tom Linton: The State of the Supply Chain 

After almost 40 years in procurement, Tom Linton is still excited about the business of supply chains. In an early-April webcast moderated by Resilinc CEO Bindiya Vakil, Linton forecast grand shifts ahead in the technology and geography of supply chains, including a “re-globalization” in which OEMs correct their over-dependence on Asian suppliers.

At the same time, Linton says that precipitous moves by U.S. OEMs to “decouple” from China will be risky and challenging because of the extent of trading in materials and parts in the lower tiers of supply chains. And he doubts that U.S. political leaders will solve the semiconductor shortage due to surging demand and the lead time required to build a new semiconductor fab. “Just because the President holds up a chip and says ‘We’re going to invest in semiconductors,’ this is not like turning on a light.

On the demand side, the “wave that’s coming from Asian countries could consume all the available semiconductors in the world,” said Linton. “It will take years to recover” a balance of semiconductor supply with demand.

Linton, who’s co-authoring a book (his second) on the physics of supply chains, urged supply chain managers to use the turmoil of the pandemic, which played a pivotal role in the semiconductor shortage, to advocate for greater investment in supply chain resiliency. Supply chains are usually an esoteric topic, “but lately the business media is covering our profession constantly,” said Linton. “When you want to explain to senior managers what your challenges are, you can just show them a few recent Wall Street Journal articles.”

The most significant trend that will animate supply chains over the coming decade, in Linton’s view, is re-globalization. “What’s going on is a re-balancing … An imbalance was created, one that leaned too heavily on China and other Asian countries, because sourcing was driven by one priority: reducing labor costs.” This approach cut costs but added time in shipping, which often inflated balance sheets.

Linton predicts that re-globalization will take a decade, and it will be more complex than simple re-shoring (moving foreign production to the U.S.) and near-shoring (moving it closer). “Like the first wave of globalization, this will take time. You can’t just move things from one geography to another.” The intricate dependencies in the lower tiers of supply chains must be mapped and analyzed first. “You have to have visibility deep into multiple levels of your supply chain, and you have to do scenario planning: ‘If this factory went down, what would we do?’”

Another feature of re-globalization will be supply chains increasingly configured to serve OEM’s largest markets. “U.S. companies will make things in China to sell to Chinese companies, Chinese companies will make things in the U.S. to sell to U.S. companies,” said Linton.

Turning his attention to supply chains in Africa, Linton commented on the “tremendous reserves of mineral resources that the world will need over the next 100 years,” and he expressed the hope that the development of supply chains on the continent would improve economic conditions for many. “Globalization lifted 300 million people out of poverty in China,” he said. “Tremendous benefits can come from supply chains.” But major investment in transportation infrastructure in Africa will be needed to realize this promise—and Linton noted that Chinese companies are way ahead of their Western rivals in this regard.

Transportation investments are also needed to accomplish greater trading between North and South America. “There is now no road that connects North America with South America,” he said. “The so-called Pan American Highway is a dirt trail in places. I’d love to see the Biden Administration take up the challenge of building greater north-south connectivity” with highways and railroads.

“Our future is Pan American,” said Linton. “Instead of building walls, we should be more inclusive with Mexico and our other southern neighbors as well as Canada. This is how we can achieve the supply chain dream in which everything you need is within a week’s shipping distance.”

And in the ports and railyards of this Pan-American future, Linton foresees intelligent equipment expediting shipping more effectively than the most experienced human logistics pros. “The growing intelligence of the edge will capture much attention and investment over next few years,” he said.

Within a few years, he imagines, a truck with excess capacity will autonomously broadcast its route and available space to a stack of shipping containers, saying the equivalent of “Hey, I’m empty. How much have you got?”

“These kinds of things are not unthinkable,” said Linton. “As this edge gets built out, the supply chain profession will be quite a ride.”

Watch On-Demand: Live Chat with Tom Linton on the State of the Supply Chain 

Blog detail template

White Paper

China’s Energy Crisis Prompts Widespread Global Supply Chain Disruptions

Download Now

Recent Posts

Petrochemical demand is up and prices are spiking

Extreme weather is risky business for supply chains

China’s COVID policies fracture global supply chains

Securing aerospace and defense-critical supply chains

Post-pandemic, life sciences supply chains are prioritizing resilience

Driving domestic production of critical materials and rare earth elements

Shortages of coolant set to impact the semiconductor industry

Goodbye globalization: redesigning global supply chains to prioritize security over cost

About Resilinc

We’re the world’s leading supply chain monitoring, mapping, and resiliency solution. Over 100k organizations partner with us to take their SCRM programs from reactive to resilient.
Request Demo

Recent Blogs

Loading...
Resilinc Special Report: Global Chemicals Industry-Production challenges and Impacts
May 24, 2022
3 MIN READ
Resilinc Editorial Team

Petrochemical demand is up and prices...

The last 18 months have been very good for petrochemical manufacturers—and not so good for...
Supply Chain Disruptions, Supply Chain Risk Mitigation
Drought
May 17, 2022
3 MIN READ
Resilinc Editorial Team

Extreme weather is risky business for...

Climate change and the extreme weather events it causes are becoming larger concerns for supply...
Extreme Weather, Supply Chain Impact
China’s COVID policies fracture global supply chains
May 10, 2022
3 MIN READ
Resilinc Editorial Team

China’s COVID policies fracture globa...

“Is it over yet?” If there was ever a question to sum up the last...
Reshoring, Supply Chain Delays
Read All Blogs

Who's in your supply chain?

Better visibility starts now

Email Now|Call Now|Chat Now

Receive Our Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe
Resilinc Transparent Logo

Most Trusted, Cognitive Supply Chain Risk Management Platform

Products

Blog

Career

  • Eventwatch
  • Riskshield
  • Supplier Capability Assessment
  • R Score
  • Business Continuity
  • CyberSCRM
Menu
  • Eventwatch
  • Riskshield
  • Supplier Capability Assessment
  • R Score
  • Business Continuity
  • CyberSCRM

Company

  • About
  • News
  • Events
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Events

Resources

  • White Papers & Reports
  • Case Studies
  • On-Demand Webinars
Menu
  • White Papers & Reports
  • Case Studies
  • On-Demand Webinars

Follows Us

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin
Sales: [email protected] Support: [email protected] Call us: (408) 883-8053
Resilinc Transparent Logo

Most Trusted, Cognitive Supply Chain Risk Management Platform

Company

  • About
  • News
  • Events
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Events

Resources

  • White Papers & Reports
  • Case Studies
  • On-Demand Webinars
Menu
  • White Papers & Reports
  • Case Studies
  • On-Demand Webinars
  • Products
  • Blog
  • Careers
Menu
  • Products
  • Blog
  • Careers

Follows Us

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin
Sales: [email protected]
Support: [email protected] Call us: (408) 883-8053

© 2022 Resilinc Corporation. All rights reserved.

Data Security

Privacy Policy

Resilinc Special Report

Russia and Ukraine War: Neon Shortage and Global Chip Crisis

Download Now