Carmakers might seem unlikely candidates to build ventilators for coronavirus victims. But in fact they may be quite well-suited to churn out the highly intricate medical devices that are in critically short supply.
Lower back pain is the second most common reason for a doctor visit, and costs the supply-chain industry around $100 billion per year. One of the leading culprits is the pushing and pulling that occurs in distribution facilities throughout the world.
As the coronavirus pandemic begins to strain the U.S. medical supply chain, California startup Zipline is looking into ways to deploy sooner and at wider scale.
In the rush to reassure, administrations have stumbled in the rollout of measures, leaving companies from catering to construction confused and increasingly anxious about accessing aid.
These pockets of resistance along the supply chain underscore the balancing act needed to contain the coronavirus and protect workers deemed essential while delivering goods and services.
The coronavirus outbreak is having a serious ripple effect throughout global supply chains. Factories have shut down, product flow in many cases has come to a halt, and consumer purchases of all but the most essential items are plummeting.