• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Library
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » White House Turns to Military for New Supply Chain Mission

White House Turns to Military for New Supply Chain Mission

White House Turns to Military for New Supply Chain Mission
Source: Bloomberg
April 28, 2020
Bloomberg

Supply chains are a fickle beast with a propensity to become unwieldy, presenting industry and government leaders a sobering test of their leadership skills. German military command learned as much in World War II during Operation Barbarossa in western Russia, as did the Romans in trying to sustain their expansive empire.

Today, the supply chain is being tested by a global health crisis. The massive effort to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and aid Americans sickened by the disease has made supply-chain management a top national security concern of President Donald Trump.

“The supply chain is everywhere, it’s like The Matrix,” said Todd McAllister, director of global supply chain and logistics at National Defense University’s Eisenhower School. “If you’re a global company, you’ve got to prioritize for sure and you have to come to an understanding that there’s a certain component of supply chain art.”

The Department of Defense is planning to invest $133 million to increase domestic production of N95 masks by more than 39 million over the next three months, DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews said in an April 21 statement. 3M Co., Owens & Minor Inc. and Honeywell International Inc. received contracts under the long standing Defense Production Act.

“This will help ensure our government has the industrial capacity to meet the nation’s needs,” Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, said in a briefing last week. “The objective is to eliminate reliance on the foreign supply chain.”

Supply Implications

Because of the U.S. military’s experience and reach, it’s been tasked by the Coronavirus Task Force and Peter Navarro, the White House’s policy coordinator for the Defense Production Act, to help allocate medical supplies and streamline supply chains in concert with private industry.

To help boost hospital-bed capacity in New York, the nation’s coronavirus epicenter, Trump in March order the USNS Comfort to sail to Manhattan to provide emergency support. With COVID-19 cases flattening out, the president said this week that the Navy hospital ship is ending that mission.

Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, vice director for logistics at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this month that he’s applying tools the Defense Department uses to manage its “very complex weapon system” to the supply chain issues in this public health crisis.

“I can tell what product is coming in, what their orders are, what they’re filling, what they’re not filling, and see the volume in the supply chain, and what they’re doing down to the county level,” Polowczyk said. “We’re working to get it potentially down to the hospital level.”

As the world fights the same outbreak, health care equipment is in short supply with the U.S. government, states and hospitals all bidding for ventilators and personal protective equipment.

Polowczyk’s tool allows him to redirect equipment to alleviate shortages in the hardest-hit U.S. states. The hospital supply chain consists of about six or seven commercial companies and from 600 to 700 distribution sites, he said in an April 2 interview with the Daily Caller.

Nuts & Bolts

The U.S. has been here before. Budgets of the War and Navy departments were so meager in the years leading up to World War II, that George Patton found his 2nd Armored Brigade without reliable nuts and bolts for the tanks under his command.

“In desperation he ordered them at his own expense from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue,” Arthur Herman wrote in his book, “Freedom’s Forge.”

President Franklin Roosevelt mobilized industry for the nation’s eventual entry into World War II by getting companies to build desperately needed tanks, planes, ships and guns. Trump’s challenge is shoring up a medical-supply industry in need of its own build-up and a health crisis that’s also turned the economy upside down.

Security Implications

The pandemic has made clearer is how exposed the global supply chain and economies can get during a so-called black swan event. When the world moves to the reflection stage, governments and militaries will consider whether national security policy changes are needed to boost resiliency at a time when efficiency has been industry’s focal point.

Supply chain resiliency will take a lot of strategic thought going forward, said McAllister.

“Our supply chain is tied to our national security, and how we weaponize it is up to us and our policy makers,” he said. “The economies are the issue, that’s what makes things go forward and it literally boils down to how resilient do you want your supply chain to be.”

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Logistics Sourcing/Procurement/SRM Supply Chain Planning & Optimization Supply Chain Visibility Global Supply Chain Management Global Trade & Economics Regulation & Compliance Healthcare
KEYWORDS Global Trade & Economics healthcare North America Regulation & Compliance SC Planning & Optimization Sourcing/Procurement/SRM Supply Chain Visibility
  • Related Articles

    White House Report Points to Severe Shortcomings in Military Supply Chain

    White House Pays Underwear Makers to Churn Out Millions of Masks

    White House Announces Strategic Plans to Push U.S. Advanced Manufacturing

Bloomberg

FedEx to Cut Management Jobs by More Than 10%, CEO Says

More from this author

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • DOCUMENTS BEARING THE INSIGNIA OF US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION LIE ON A TABLE

    New CBP Regs Call for Greater Diligence by Brokers in Reporting Security Breaches

    Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
  • A WORKER IN A WAREHOUSE, SUPERIMPOSED WITH GRAPHICS SHOWING SUPPLY NETWORK

    Enabling Intelligent Visibility With Supply Chain Analytics

    Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
  • A GROUP OF WORKERS RANGED IN AN OFFICE, OF DIVERSE RACE, GENDER, AGE AND PHYSICAL ABILITY

    Podcast | The Supply Chain Workforce of the Future Is Already Here

    HR & Labor Management
  • GSCMS-Promo.png

    Watch: Introducing the Global Supply Chain Marketing Summit

    Education & Professional Development
  • A HAND TURNS A LARGE, LIGHTED DIAL WITH THE WORD RISK ON IT iStock-NicoElNino-1364371014.jpg

    Measuring KPIs and KRIs for Comprehensive Supplier Performance Management

    Technology

Digital Edition

Scb nov 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • New Revenue for Cloud-Based TMS that Embeds Orderful’s Modern EDI Platform

  • Convenience Store Client Maximizes Profit and Improves Customer Service

  • A Digitally Native Footwear Brand Finds Rapid Fulfillment

  • Expanding Apparel Brand Scales Seamlessly with E-Commerce Technology

  • How a Global LSP Scaled its Security Program and Won More Business

Visit Our Sponsors

Orderful Yang Ming Alithya
Barcoding Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics
CoEnterprise Data Capture Deposco
E2open GAINSystems Generix
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated IFM
Infor Inmar Keelvar
Kinaxis Korber Lean Solutions Group 2H
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Logility
LogistiVIEW Lucas Systems MCA Connect
MPO Nvidia Old Dominion
OpenText ORTEC Overhaul
Parsyl PMMI QIMA
Redwood Logistics Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash Saddle Creek Logistics
Schneider Dedicated Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD
Shipwell Tecsys TGW Systems
Thomson Reuters Tive Trailer Bridge
Vecna Robotics Verity
Verusen
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2023 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing