I thought I would share a little story that highlights the interdependencies we in the modern world take for granted.
You flip the switch your lights go, you turn the faucet you get water, you order just about anything even at the last minute it arrives. All brought to us by the miraculous modern world of continuous specialization and JIT logistics.
That is it works until it doesn’t. I am sure many in Texas can tell us how disruptive life becomes when the switch doesn’t work, the heater doesn’t get power or the faucet has no water. Even going back last year, no freezers, no toilet paper, no cleaners, in some case no car building because no parts.
I get a specialty med. No biggie used to be able to get it at local pharmacy 7 minutes away. The pharmacy decided that it would be more efficient to source and ship out specialty drugs in a single location for a state or region. This way they don’t need to stock specialty drugs in all their stores. Ok no big deal the designated pharmacy is actually only 45-50 minutes away. You order they ship it historically arrives in 1-2 days shipping via Fedex. Once again the miracle of modern transportation and logistics.
Everything is great, until its not. I order and then realize hey getting kind of low. Geez didn’t I order that over a week ago??? Hhhmmm did I forget??? Better call and order.
Turns out I did place they order and the pharmacy did ship it out the next day. The problem is, even though the product source is in a another city in Ohio an hour away, things don’t ship as the crow flies. The package went from source to truck to shipment to sort facility in Memphis TN. It seems at about the same time my package arrived so did an ice storm and I heard this shutdown the main facility for a couple days. They are still recovering. Some of their drugs they shipped are starting to arrive but mine still shows some interim status.
I am not whining and complaining, if push comes to shove I can drive to the specialty pharm because it is fairly close. I worked in logistics and transportation shipping things all over the country from a single location using USPS, UPS, and Fedex. At that time we were the last stop on Fedex route and driver went from us to the airport.
Remember it is fairly easy to function when things work. But things don’t seem to be working nearly as well, and with the morons running the show adding all centralized directives and ‘improvements’ my best guess it will only get worse. I don’t expect to be Venezuela next month but it really didn’t take long for the central planners to destroy the economy of the entire country.
Take a look around, if something no longer happens when you turn the switch, faucet or order the whatever, do you have a plan B.
I think we are entering a new era of the power of plan B’s. Maybe now is a time to think of plan B’s.
You flip the switch your lights go, you turn the faucet you get water, you order just about anything even at the last minute it arrives. All brought to us by the miraculous modern world of continuous specialization and JIT logistics.
That is it works until it doesn’t. I am sure many in Texas can tell us how disruptive life becomes when the switch doesn’t work, the heater doesn’t get power or the faucet has no water. Even going back last year, no freezers, no toilet paper, no cleaners, in some case no car building because no parts.
I get a specialty med. No biggie used to be able to get it at local pharmacy 7 minutes away. The pharmacy decided that it would be more efficient to source and ship out specialty drugs in a single location for a state or region. This way they don’t need to stock specialty drugs in all their stores. Ok no big deal the designated pharmacy is actually only 45-50 minutes away. You order they ship it historically arrives in 1-2 days shipping via Fedex. Once again the miracle of modern transportation and logistics.
Everything is great, until its not. I order and then realize hey getting kind of low. Geez didn’t I order that over a week ago??? Hhhmmm did I forget??? Better call and order.
Turns out I did place they order and the pharmacy did ship it out the next day. The problem is, even though the product source is in a another city in Ohio an hour away, things don’t ship as the crow flies. The package went from source to truck to shipment to sort facility in Memphis TN. It seems at about the same time my package arrived so did an ice storm and I heard this shutdown the main facility for a couple days. They are still recovering. Some of their drugs they shipped are starting to arrive but mine still shows some interim status.
I am not whining and complaining, if push comes to shove I can drive to the specialty pharm because it is fairly close. I worked in logistics and transportation shipping things all over the country from a single location using USPS, UPS, and Fedex. At that time we were the last stop on Fedex route and driver went from us to the airport.
Remember it is fairly easy to function when things work. But things don’t seem to be working nearly as well, and with the morons running the show adding all centralized directives and ‘improvements’ my best guess it will only get worse. I don’t expect to be Venezuela next month but it really didn’t take long for the central planners to destroy the economy of the entire country.
Take a look around, if something no longer happens when you turn the switch, faucet or order the whatever, do you have a plan B.
I think we are entering a new era of the power of plan B’s. Maybe now is a time to think of plan B’s.
