The Minimum Wage Hike

California’s minimum wage went up to $20/hr. for fast food restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide that do not make bread. This law is causing widespread unintended consequences. For example, Fosters Freeze in Lemoore closed suddenly after the wage hike. Mod 5 Pizza is closing five locations. There are widespread price increases including at In n Out, Burger King and more. Significant layoffs are also occurring at restaurants like Pizza Hut, Round Table Pizza, and Auntie Anne’s as companies determine how to deal with the wage hikes while maintaining profit levels. Some franchise owners are “on the move” to states with less regulation such as Nevada. It will also negatively impact manufacturing and supply chain as companies compete for resources and increase prices. The Skills Gap and misalignment of high-skilled and low-skilled jobs will worsen.

More Shortages & Sky High Prices…..NOT Chocolate!

The price of cocoa has doubled in the last year. After three years of poor cocoa harvests with a weak outlook, the supply of cocoa has been slashed. Thus, prices are escalating and shortages are becoming widespread. Processing plants are saying they cannot afford to purchase the beans. For example, 60% of the world’s coca is produced in Africa’s the Ivory Coast and Ghana, and these plants have stopped or cut processing. Unfortunately, there is a massive misalignment of demand and supply which is creating supply chain shortages and causing inflationary pressures. In addition, substitutes are starting to occur. To read more about persistent shortages, see our article, “Supply Chain Shortages Remain a Concern“.

Egg Inflation

The largest producer of fresh eggs, Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. temporarily shut down one of its facilities due to the bird flu. It also resulted in the depopulation of 1.6 million hens. These issues are bound to lead to further price increases. Egg prices increased over 8% in the last month, have more than doubled since before the pandemic, and are bound to go even higher as potential shortages loom. What is the bottom line? Supply and demand misalignment is creating havoc throughout the supply chain.

It Isn’t All About Food

Oil and gas prices are increasing again, which will have an impact on countless products from medical devices to electronics and industrial machinery. Since the supply chain has been thrust into chaos throughout the world (listen to our recent Supply Chain Chats on what’s going on in the global supply chain), container shipping rates are increasing. And after the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore, the automobile supply chains have been disrupted, and it is likely to lead to inflationary pressures. No matter the product, supply chain risks have been heightened.

How to Navigate

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer and magic wand to resolve the shortages and realign demand with supply. On the other hand, the focus of SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning) is to align demand with supply and provide the visibility and insights to proactively navigate these rough waters. For example, clients are reallocating capacity among production facilities, making make vs buy decisions, offloading to supplement short-term spikes in demand, and maximizing customer and product profitability with a SIOP process. To learn more about these strategies, download our complimentary book, SIOP: Creating Predictable Revenue and EBITDA Growth.

In addition, there is no doubt the proactive clients are finding ways to leverage ERP systems and advanced technologies to automate, digitize and better navigate these trying circumstances. For example, a healthcare products manufacturer is using artificial intelligence and robotics to produce standard product with minimal resources so that they can dedicate their high-skilled talent to their complex product lines supporting aerospace and defense. Another client is pursuing additive manufacturing/ 3D printing to get a leg up on the competition and bring down lead times to support growth plans. There is plenty of opportunities if you look for them!

If you are interested in reading more on this topic:
How Do You Rate in Your Supply Chain?

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Companies should seize opportunities to increase packaging efficiencies, improving profitability and sustainability

Since packaging is typically 10-40% of the retail price of products, there is no doubt it adds up to a relevant factor in product cost and waste. Packaging encompasses product design, prototypes and trials, materials, production, labor, shipping, and recycling and/or disposal. The most proactive companies pay close attention to opportunities to increase packaging efficiencies throughout the end-to-end supply chain to improve their profitability and sustainability.

Product Design Collaboration

Product design is at the heart of improving packaging efficiency. Our best clients take a collaborative approach to R&D and packaging design encompassing the end-to-end supply chain. For example, in a healthcare products manufacturer, the packaging engineer worked with R&D, manufacturing technicians, procurement resources, and logistics resources with a specialty in warehousing and transportation. In addition, customers, packaging materials suppliers, equipment specialists, and other resources took part in the collaborative design.

By involving these cross-functional resources, the full life cycle could be incorporated into the product design. In this case, they wanted to ensure the design encompassed the optimal packaging design to meet the customer’s visual, strength, and storage specifications while minimizing the materials, labor, and logistics costs. For example, the objective was to minimize the packaging materials while meeting product specifications. However, the team had to review potentially conflicting factors. For example, doubling the number of units of product per package would make the way the package fit in the box less efficient, the box might not be best designed to optimize the pallet, the pallets might not be optimized to fit on the truck, or the customer might not like the visual design or be able to fit the product in the storage area.

In addition, the product’s performance had to remain intact. Reducing the quantity of materials must not negatively impact the way the product worked for the customer. Compressing the product into the package must not negatively impact the absorbency of the product. Using redesigned materials in the manufacturing process must not impact product quality. This healthcare manufacturer successfully redesigned the product and reduced the total cost by more than 20% inclusive of materials, packaging, warehousing, and transportation costs.

Packaging Efficiencies in Bottling

There are vast opportunities to improve packaging efficiencies in the bottling industry. For example, Niagara has accomplished several key objectives in eliminating waste through packaging and innovation. They designed new packaging that eliminates the need for a cardboard tray in their cases and reduced the amount of plastic in their bottles by 60%. Thus, this packaging requires less materials and uses up less pallet space, allowing the company to reduce carbon emissions and ship more water per order.

Since 2009, Niagara improved its carbon footprint by 59% through innovations in design, lightweighting, and packaging. It has also increased its recycled content usage, which reduced greenhouse gas impact by bottle by 12%. Gaining these results requires a full lifecycle view of supply chain from product design through recycling.

Packaging Efficiencies at Amazon

According to Amazon, it continually works to reinvent and simplify packaging options. The company combines lab testing, machine learning, materials science, and manufacturing partnerships to accomplish this goal. Amazon notes that it avoided more than 2 million tons of packaging materials and reduced per-shipment packaging weight by 41% since 2015. The bottom line is that a significant reduction in packaging will reduce costs and improve sustainability.

Improving packaging efficiency can produce dramatic results. The healthcare products manufacturer, Niagara, and Amazon prove that by focusing on packaging design and innovation, tremendous savings in materials, labor, and freight will flow to the bottom line. In addition, carbon emissions are reduced and sustainability objectives are achieved.

Originally posted in Adhesives & Sealants, March 2024

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Lisa Anderson was quoted in Food Logistics’ Top 10 Trends to Shape Cold Food Chain in 2024 recently. With the help of some supply chain visibility, sustainable measures, more focus on people and the ability to pivot at a moment’s notice, 2024 is anyone’s and everyone’s game to succeed.

Top trends to watch in 2024

Nearshoring, risk mitigation and building resiliency. The top supply chain trends to watch in 2024 include a keen focus on mitigating supply chain risk, reshoring and nearshoring to source reliable production closer to customers, finding backup sources of supply, creating resiliency in the end-to-end supply chain, digitizing the supply chain, and keeping an eye on cybersecurity threats, according to Lisa Anderson, president, LMA Consulting Group, Inc.

“Since there is heightened risk in the global supply chain due to geopolitics, conflicts over natural resources, ongoing concerns related to the Russia-Ukraine war, South China Seas, new threats in the Suez Canal related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Panama Canal issues related to drought, and concerns about natural disasters, labor negotiations/labor shortages, and cyber threats, smart executives are taking control,” she adds.

Sustainability. Despite all of the challenges and disruptions the supply chain industry faces, sustainability still remains a key trend for 2024, especially as companies race to deliver on their net-zero commitments by 2030.

“In many sectors, Scope 3 emissions can account for up to 80% of a company’s total emissions. Lowering Scope 3 presents one of the most significant opportunities for decarbonization, and the industry will look for opportunities to gain operational efficiencies,” Gerdeman says. “For example, our clients are using our analytics to optimize the mode, route, and equipment selection for temperature-sensitive goods, saving money by protecting products from freezing or spoilage, reducing refrigeration costs when cold blankets do the trick, reducing fuel costs, and lowering their carbon emissions.”

In fact, global food and beverage production accounts for roughly 34% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and according to the Food and Agricultural Organization, the food and beverage supply chain is on track to become the industry’s largest polluter. OXFAM found that the emissions of 10 of the largest food and beverage fleets equaled the total emissions of all Scandinavian countries combined.

State of transportation

The driver shortage still exists, diesel fuel costs are still on the rise and U.S. container imports continue to experience an uptick month-over-month.

The Yellow Freight bankruptcy also created a ripple effect on the industry, one that is still somewhat being felt.

“Customers had to scramble, opportunities arose for competitors, and the supply chain evolved,” Anderson says. “Similarly, the threat of a potential rail strike and West Coast port strike caused customers to transition to alternate modes of transportation and pursue alternate routes. The same is occurring with the UPS strike and the UAW strike as supply chains are moving to account for these types of issues.”

State of e-commerce

E-commerce in grocery didn’t really become a thing until COVID-19 forced several supermarkets and grocery retailers to create a B2C arm of their business almost overnight.

Fast forward to what will be 4 years later, and the rise of e-commerce in grocery is here to stay.

Similarly, B2B channels are also growing.

“For example, cold chain needs will explode as computer chip capacity comes online with the expansion of manufacturing with the CHIPS Act,” says Anderson. “Thus, cold chains are expanding at a rapid rate and will continue to thrive in 2024. Cold storage is limited, and even though there are inflationary pressures escalating the cost to build cold storage facilities, growth will be robust. Innovation will be essential to meeting these needs in a way that will provide customer value in a sustainable and profitable manner in 2024.”

What’s to come in 2024?

While 2023 may have been the Year of Bottlenecks, 2024 opens the door to longevity, peace and prosperity.

Yet to achieve those elements, companies must be more proactive, more agile and more forward-thinking.

“Instead of being reactive, forward-thinking executives are making the shift to being proactive. Thus, they are setting up a resilient supply chain with the ability to scale up/ down quickly, utilize backup sources of supply, alternate logistics and transportation providers and routes, and educating a cross-functional workforce. They are also rolling out proactive and predictive demand and supply planning programs such as SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning), forward positioning of inventory and capacity, and predictive analytics. As no client has enough high-skilled talent, the best organizations are automating, digitizing, and using robotics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, IoT and the metaverse (AR/VR) to best utilize limited resources while supplying customer needs,” says Anderson.

Read the full article here

The post Top 10 Trends to Shape Cold Food Chain in 2024 appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Lisa Anderson joined Food and Beverage Talk podcast to discuss supply chain challenges and opportunities in the food and beverage industry.

The complex and under-appreciated topic of production planning and supply chain optimization is the focus of this episode of F&B Talk. Lisa Anderson takes a look at the different components of production management and how they fit into the supply chain world. She discusses the steps of the production planning process, the importance of the sales forecast, common issues in the supply chain on the manufacturing and distribution sides of operations and keeping all the elements and players on the same page.

During this interview, Lisa talks through supply chain trends and where clients should focus to succeed in the current environment. Most importantly, she discusses food and beverage client examples and provides insights and tips for how to handle these common supply chain issues.

The post Pitfalls and Solutions: Common Supply Chain Issues in Manufacturing and Distribution appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Manufacturing Challenged with Supply Chain Chaos

Manufacturing has struggled to produce what customers want on-time without spending a fortune and tying up excess cash unnecessarily in the wrong, “just-in-case” inventory. It is a tough environment spiraling out of control with supply chain chaos.

In the current state of affairs, there are historic levels of supply chain disruption and shortages, causing significant inflation and creating a bullwhip effect. When companies cannot obtain the materials and products required to keep production running and satisfy customer demand, they tend to over order, hoping they’ll get product sooner. This creates inflated demand, further extends lead times and inflates prices in addition to causing “fake” demand down-the-line (bullwhip effect). Suppliers try to keep up with demand, attempt to hire people and procure additional materials, and this continues down-the-line.

At some point, demand falls off (at least for some of the products, even if total demand stays intact), and the wrong materials and products end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. This creates panic in the opposite direction with customers postponing and canceling orders, and the effects are felt down-the-line once again with a new bullwhip effect. The bullwhip started at the beginning of the pandemic, and it has been swinging from side to side and creating volatility ever since with no signs of slowing down. Disruptions abound with the Russia-Ukraine war, the China-Taiwan tension, the computer chip shortages, and typical weather events. Check out the latest events to consider in our Supply Chain Chats video series.

Proactive Planning to the Rescue

Successful manufacturers will get off the bullwhip swing. Instead, they will take control of their end-to-end supply chain with proactive planning. This starts by getting a better handle on their sales forecast by developing a demand plan. Given the level of volatility and complexity in today’s simplest of supply chains, they must get a picture of future demand. A combination of statistical formulas, sales and market input, customer demand, and proactive management will go a long way to providing a view into demand.

Next up, you’ll need a master schedule which will provide a long-range production plan and capacity plan. These proactive plans will allow you to determine the machinery and equipment required to support your production plans, the staffing and training plans needed to bring your plans to fruition, the purchase and supply plans (inclusive of insource, outsource, offload, and outside processing) needed so that you can proactively work with suppliers and source partners, and the storage and distribution plans required to support your customers. The best planners are constantly evaluating alternatives to maximize customer value, efficiency and profitability, and working capital. These plans do not address the shorter term.

Handoff to Production Scheduling

Production scheduling picks up where master planning leaves off and addresses the short-term planning horizon. Since the strategic decisions typically arise with the master planning data, the powerful value of production scheduling is often overlooked. Plans rarely fail in formulation. They fail in execution. The production schedule is that execution.

Production scheduling provides a plan of what will be produced on which line, in which operation, in which sequence, at what time to achieve three objectives simultaneously:

• Customer service: Satisfying the customers need on-time as measured by OTIF (on-time-in-full) or OTD (on-time delivery) and to the customers’ expected lead time.
• Profitability: Scheduling the production facility in the optimal manner to maximize output with the least amount of labor, minimize scrap, and minimize operational resources and costs.
• Working capital: Achieve high levels of customer service and profitability with the least amount of inventory throughout the network to support production and customer demand.

Good production schedules will maximize service, profit and working capital. Bad production schedules will not only suboptimize these three outcomes, but chaos and confusion will follow.

Production Scheduling Factors

Material planning should consider the following factors when production scheduling:

• Run size – the best set run quantity based on economic order quantity concepts. It is rare to see a client with full information to complete an official analysis on EOQ; however, every client has at least directionally correct information to make an informed decision to get the process rolling.
• Run frequency – typically, you’ll set a sequence that makes sense with your customers’ demand patterns (volumes, frequencies), operations and quick-change capabilities, lead time requirements, etc.
• Service policies – your production schedule and changes to the production schedule will have to be configured around your service policies
• Constraints – your production schedule will also have to be configured around your capacity constraints (machinery, tools, labor, storage), maintenance and quality constraints, bottleneck operational constraints, material / ingredient constraints, etc.
• Sequencing – you’ll also need to consider sequencing priorities to support operational performance objectives.

Production Scheduling Sequencing

A critical priority in production scheduling is sequencing. Following the graphic, you’ll see the sequencing priorities in a beverage operation:

• Customer demand: Items, volumes
• Packaging and/ or sizes: If you are producing soft drinks or power drinks, you start with packaging (6-pack cans, 8-pack bottles, 2-liter, etc.) and sizes (12oz, 20oz, etc.). Packaging and sizes will dictate which production line(s), equipment, and machinery will be required to support the production schedule.
• Manufacturing capacity: Once you know you are running cans on the production line, you will want to make sure you have enough machine and equipment capacity to run enough cans to meet your needs.
• Labor capacity: Assuming you have enough machine capacity, you will need to make sure you have enough labor capacity on the appropriate shifts needed. If not, you’ll need to find a way to allocate capacity from a different line, cross-train resources, and/or hire resources.
• Flavors: When it comes to sequencing, you’ll want to start at the top level (bottles), go packaging and sizes (8-pack 12oz), and then go to flavors (coke, diet coke, cherry coke) to minimize changeovers.
• Allergens: When it comes to food and beverage, you clearly need to segregate allergens and sanitize between allergens and non-allergens. You would not want to sanitize after producing for an hour!

In working with hundreds of manufacturers across multiple manufacturing environments (process, job shop, configure-to-order (CTO), engineer-to-order (ETO)) and industries (aerospace, food and beverage, building and construction, healthcare and life sciences), these same principles apply. Sequences are determined by the following: size, material type, surface finish, accessories, labor requirements (# of people needed to run the item), subsequent operations, and many more.

Production Scheduling Strategies

Production scheduling is art and science. The best planners use a combination of art and science. There are a few alternative strategies although the best figure out the “right” combination of strategies that best supports the business:

• Reorder point / Kanban – in essence, you schedule to an agreed upon reorder quantity when your item falls below a specified level (reorder point).
• MRP – in this case, you schedule to customer or forecast requirements within a time period in quantities based on the economic order quantity (assuming you’ve set that quantity in the system).
• Production wheel – this strategy level loads across changeover groups to create a sequencing of changeovers that is optimized for production yet meets service policies.

There are tradeoffs, benefits and costs to each approach depending on your customer demand, service policies, operational constraints, production sequencing factors, bottleneck operations, and other issues. Frequently, we see a combination of approaches based on what makes sense for each unique situation. Common sense production scheduling yields the best results!

Client Example

Sticking with the food and beverage example, a food bar manufacturer wanted to gain significant improvements in operational performance from an optimized production scheduling process. They successfully satisfied customer requirements and had recently upgraded their manufacturing facility and equipment to gain operational efficiencies. Thus, the next logical step was to optimize the production schedule to gain full production runs in optimized sequences which they thought would provide a 10-point improvement.

After resolving related bottlenecks that clouded the production scheduling picture, we worked with sales to stabilize the demand plan for a 4-month window and then translate that demand into a level loaded monthly production wheel. Of course, no operation can be fully level loaded because business conditions and customer requirements change. However, by gaining the 4-month window into demand, grouping like-items, sequencing in a logical order to minimize changeovers and disruption, integrating an ABC flow with certain groups of items running more frequently than others (weekly, monthly, quarterly), and allocating capacity for non-forecastable orders or supply disruptions, we optimized the schedule and were able to maintain resiliency with changing conditions. Of course, conditions changed (ie. pandemic arose, inventory became a higher priority), and we were able to pivot to changing conditions and deliver significant results.

A solid production schedule will turn chaos into stability. As stability is achieved, operational costs are reduced, expedite costs minimized, inventory turns increased, lead-times reduced, obsolete and slow-moving inventory minimized, employee morale improved, etc.

Refer to our blog for many articles on planning, capacity and related concepts. Also, read more about these types of strategies in our eBooks such as The Road Ahead: Business, Supply Chain & the World Order. If you are interested in talking about what it would take to optimize your production scheduling scenario, contact us.

Did you like this article?  Continue reading on this topic:
Improving Service Levels, Logistics Efficiencies, and Inventory Turns with Replenishment Planning Best Practices

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In this episode of Since Sliced Bread, Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group, explains where the supply chain stands now, how it got this way and what she sees successful companies doing to get through the crisis. In the second half, she discusses the use of data.

Companies get strategic to pull ahead of supply chain crunch

Despite the opportunities for growth wholesale bakers have had due to increased consumer demand, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic exposed weaknesses in the supply chain that are hindering the industry to fully take advantage of those opportunities. Bakers and suppliers — both ingredients and equipment — are struggling to source raw materials and find reliable transportation necessary to meet customer orders. In this episode of Since Sliced Bread, Lisa Anderson, president of LMA Consulting Group, explains where the supply chain stands now, how it got this way and what she sees successful companies doing to get through the crisis.

“Right-sizing or realigning your supply chain, those companies that are doing that are taking additional volume that their competition cannot supply and pulling away in the positive direction,” she said. “The ones that are hoping and waiting for things to get better are pulling away in the negative because others are taking the volume.”

Ms. Anderson outlines how she believes this situation will reshape the supply chain for good and what will eventually pull the economy out of the crunch. Labor remains at the heart of the issue, slowing down transportation both at ports and in the trucking sector.

Ms. Anderson explains how shortening supply chains can provide relief and digital tools can help bakers become more strategic about their inventories. These strategies can help bakers move through the current supply chain crisis and adapt to the future. Listen to this episode to find out what she thinks it will take for all this to be over.

Originally published on Baking Business.

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Supply chain disruptions and shortages continue to plague the news. Unfortunately, as I said in a recent press release, there is no end in sight. I thought this topic was worth addressing as it has been particularly frustrating lately.

I went to Starbucks recently. After getting stuck in a very long line, I was told that they were out of almost everything I ordered including the backup options. No blueberries. No agave or honey. No croissants. And the list went on. It turned out to be an exercise in frustration.

The grocery stores are out of cheesecake. Apparently, there is a run on cheese. All stores are out of the dog food my dog likes to eat. That’s a real problem! Abby doesn’t care about supply chain challenges. I tried to order it from Amazon, and they were out of all cans except one flavor which was double its regular price. I couldn’t stomach buying from them, and so I found another flavor on Chewy and ordered it. I then called to make sure it was in stock and would ship. According to customer service, Abby shouldn’t have to starve. Fingers crossed! The only thing worse would be if my cat ran out of treats. That would be ‘the end’ in his mind:-).

On the medical supplies front, in trying to order a bedside toilet, I found that the lead times were long. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something we could wait for, and so I called around until I found one and picked it up when I got to Arizona.

I talked about these supply chain shortages on FOX Live recently and what can be done about it. What can be done to improve this frustrating situation?

What Should We Consider and/or What Impacts Could Arise?

These issues have been a hot topic in a series of articles on “sounding the alarm on supply chain” related to the commercial baking industry that I’ve been quoted in. Read more here:

• Industry execs weigh in on the chip shortage
• The raw materials ripple effect
• New strategies for raw material shortages
• Q4 shipping crisis’ impact on bakery

Customers are getting frustrated with shortages and delays. We are not willing to wait and accept subpar substitutes. Proactive and resilient companies will thrive, and the rest will fade. Consider implementing a SIOP (sales, inventory and operations planning) process to become one of the winners.

Please keep us in the loop of your situation and how we can help your organization successfully navigate the current volatility and, more importantly, emerge above and beyond. Several of these types of topics are included in our new eBook Emerging Above and Beyond: 21 Insights for 2021 from Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Technology Executives. Download your complimentary copy.

The post Shortages, Shortages, and More Shortages appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Even with the ports open, getting the materials off the containers is still a challenge, especially as the trucking industry remains a drivers’ market. “You have to send the trucks to the appropriate terminals,” comments Lisa Anderson, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, president of LMA Consulting Group Inc.

Click here for the full story.

The post Commercial Baking: Sounding the Alarm on Supply Chain: Q4 Shipping Crisis’ Impact on Bakery appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

Disruption in the supply chain is hitting all facets of manufacturing in every business realm. In a series following the impact on the baking industry, a group of industry suppliers, associations and consultants gathered with Commercial Baking to assess the situation and discuss potential solutions.

Here’s what they had to say as far as navigating shortages, long lead times and more:

While obvious components such as burners are impacting oven manufacturers, shortages of electrical components like microchips are creating a mass scramble and at times halting production of bakery equipment equipped with PLCs and other electronic features.

In some cases, lead times have increased to as many as 25 weeks for what used to be stock parts.

It can also limit flexibility for an equipment manufacturer’s overall process. Before these shortages, if there was an extended lead time for one component, a supplier could shuffle schedules for customers who were further along in the process or had a smaller project. Today, no project is safe, especially when bakery suppliers are essentially vying with manufacturers in every industry for the same microchips.

Bakers who are planning to invest in new automation should be aware of the volatility in the availability of components. The impact to an installation is the result of suppliers — and their suppliers — battling a backlog of parts.

“Working with manufacturers in multiple industries, it’s quite clear we’re all competing for many of the same materials, including computer chips and microchips said Lisa Anderson, supply chain consultant and president of LMA Consulting.

Click here for the full story.

The post Commercial Baking: Sounding the Alarm on Supply Chain: Industry Execs Weigh in on Chip Shortage appeared first on LMA-Consulting Group, a supply chain consulting firm.

“Manufacturers looking for any kinds of raw materials or ingredients are having to revise their schedules continuously, and it’s a daily challenge,” said Lisa Anderson, supply chain consultant and president of LMA Consulting. “There are issues from one end of the spectrum to the other.”

The current supply chain disruption has become a simultaneous viscous cycle and web of complications, where one setback can set off a chain of events in any number of directions.

A group of suppliers, associations, consultants and bakers sat down with Commercial Baking to assess their most recent challenges and their often-unanticipated side effects.

While bakers scramble for raw ingredient materials and items like packaging film, the equipment manufacturers are in the same predicament with items such as lumber, steel and electrical components.

The supply chain disruption is broader and deeper than just a problem between bakers and suppliers. It goes back to the beginning with agriculture and hits all the way to consumers.

The Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture (CME)’s latest Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey to measure agricultural producers’ economic confidence, indicated weakening sentiment among agricultural producers, dropping to the lowest levels since the early stages of the pandemic. September’s Ag Economy Barometer dropped 14 points to 124, representing the lowest reading since July 2020.

Click here for the full story.

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