-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email This article was originally published on The Conversation . Getting any product to consumers, whether it's a can of sardines or a screwdriver, requires that supply chains function well. The availability of labor is essential in each link of the supply chain.
That includes the workers who make sure that your tinned fish and handy tools smoothly journey from their point of origin to where they'll wind up, whether it's a supermarket, hardware store or your front door. Amazingly, 90% of all internationally traded products are carried by ships at some point. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard not to notice the supply chain disruptions .
For U.S. ports, there were many bouts of congestion.
Demand for goods that were either more or less popular than they would normally be became volatile. Shortages of truckers and other freight service providers wreaked havoc on land-based and maritime transportation networks. Consumers became exasperated when they saw all the empty shelves .
They endured price spikes for items that were suddenly scarce, such as hand sanitizer, computer equipment and bleach. I'm a scholar of supply chain management who belongs to a research group that studies ways to make supply chains better able to withstand disruptions. Based on that research, plus what I learned while writing a book about labor and supply chains , I'm concerned about the turmoil that could be in store for cargo arriving on ships.
Concerns .