Good bye Just in time?

There are so many weird things happening at the moment. Last week I was listening to the (I think) great Evan Davis talking about the effects of Covid and ramping up production in The Bottom Line.  This made me think about the pull and push of current times. As an example, there are coffees that I ordered in January that are only just getting on the water, from Africa. This delay wasn’t planned as much as the second box of Brazils I ordered last October that has spent the weekend in Morocco, has been fully planned and will be here when we need it. My point here is that it is taking longer than normal to move some goods at the moment. This is partially due to a worldwide shortage of containers, as well as the pandemic.

To the point…

Is this the end of Just in Time?

Going back to my heading. With a backlog and shortage of containers shipping around the world and also a shortage of truck and van drivers, what are we about to see? Will Amazon become more expensive? Will people just buy whatever is put in front of them, as long as it is quick? We have become used to having access to almost everything very quickly. My big questions of the moment below.

Is the restrictive production going to make a boom? Really? As an example, I can’t buy any new grinders at the moment, so I am buying thousands of pounds of stock ahead. This isn’t growth, more ensuring that we have access to stock for our customers when they need it.

Are we about to remember what inflation looks like? This could be devastating for so many trades but might level things up again. The “exciting” thing about change is that we just don’t know.

Maybe the days of plenty are over by a forced hand?

I would be really interested to hear your thoughts.