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Last month, the US supply chain faced a particularly high risk of disruption. Port closures due to a worker strike, devastating hurricanes, and rising China-Taiwan tensions left many distribution networks feeling vulnerable. With additional threats on the horizon, it’s more important than ever for manufacturers to build supply chain resilience before it’s too late.
Here's a recap of what happened last month:
36 East Coast and Gulf Coast ports closed due to a union worker strike.
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What happened: On October 1, nearly 50,000 dockworkers who are part of the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) walked off the job. Negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) centered around wages, benefits, preventing outsourcing of some jobs to non-union workers, and the use of automation. Fortunately, the dispute was settled in record time, and economic disaster ahead of the holiday season was averted.
- Continued threats: The agreed-upon contract extension only goes through mid-January, and if parties don’t come to an agreement, the strike could be back on. The ILA is demanding a ban on all automation at the ports, and this could be a major sticking point for the USMX. With more than $2 billion worth of goods flowing through these ports daily, another round of closures could wreak serious havoc on distribution.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore through the Southeastern U.S.
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What happened: Two monstrous back-to-back hurricanes caused widespread destruction in mid-October. Supply chains were disrupted due to closures of roads, railways, and ports in Palm Beach, Canaveral, Fernandina, Jacksonville, Key West, Fort Myers, Manatee, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa. As total damages are still being assessed, power outages, damaged roads, and labor shortages have further slowed the recovery process.
- Continued threats: Hurricane season isn’t over yet. As long as temperatures remain warm in the Atlantic basin, we could see more tropical storm activity over the next month.
Tensions between China and Taiwan intensified.
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What happened: China has been conducting large-scale military drills near Taiwan, which many analysts believe to be a warning against separatist acts by the island.
- Continued threats: Conflict between China and Taiwan poses a major threat to the semiconductor supply chain, which would lead to ripple effects through all industries. With the upcoming U.S. elections, there is further uncertainty around total potential impact, so building resilience is key.
Preparing Your Supply Chain for Worst-Case Scenarios
All these recent events underscore how critical it is to prepare for disruption. Manufacturers need to assess whether their supply chains are strong enough to withstand continued threats before the next disaster strikes.Building supply chain resilience requires a strategic balance of efficiency vs. flexibility. Below are some tips for avoiding stoppages due to lack of critical components, along with some real-world examples from our clients.
- Diversify your supplier base. Establishing backup suppliers in different geographical locations helps ensure business continuity in the face of regional disruption. Consider reducing your dependencies on imports through nearshoring when possible and look for reliable alternatives to China and Taiwan when you can’t localize.
Real-world example: A client of ours was looking to reduce their reliance on suppliers in China and Taiwan. We suggested that they import fastener blanks (partially manufactured fasteners that can be cut and threaded to specifications) from these regions and move the rolling and plating processes to the U.S. We also suggested moving away from Chinese brass suppliers in favor of our vetted Indian suppliers. - Build higher inventory buffers to prevent stockouts. Buffer inventory, or safety stock, is additional inventory maintained to mitigate uncertainties in supply and demand. Building this up helps you hedge against long lead times such as when ports get backed up.
Real-world example: Through our Inventory Transparency program, we help clients with dynamic inventory management. We analyze their supply and demand forecast data to determine our own inventory levels and transparently share that with clients. We are also integrated with our largest suppliers. Not only can we be transparent about our inventory levels, but also our lead times and amount of stock already available stateside. Your inventory + our inventory + inventory we can procure for you = your buffer. - Standardize your parts. Many manufacturers use custom-built parts that are made by a single supplier. This is problematic if that supplier experiences delays or suddenly becomes unavailable. We suggest allocating your engineering resources to part standardization where possible so that you can source standard parts from multiple parties and mitigate this risk.
Real-world example: For one of our clients, we calculated that part standardization would help them achieve 16-20 times faster lead time. 
Invest in end-to-end supply chain visibility. Companies need to be able to look across the supply chain end to end to more reliably predict ripple effects of disruption. This means knowing:
- Supplier locations
- Manufacturing points
- Logistical routes
- Relationships across the broader supply chain network
- Potential risks and weaknesses
- Real-time data points
- Your own inventory levels
- Your suppliers’ inventory levels (Inventory Transparency)
- Where products are at any given moment
- How plants and warehouses are running
- Where disruptions are occurring
More Ways Blue Ribbon Fastener Can Help
We have decades of experience navigating supply chain disruptions and building flexible logistics networks. If you’re looking to build resilience, we can help through a variety of solutions including:- Supply chain analysis & risk assessment
- Supplier diversification, strategies for minimizing cost impact of reshoring
- Inventory transparency
- Safety stock programs
- And more
“We didn’t see a ton of disruption from the port strike. It didn’t last very long. A lot of companies had prepared for it. We didn’t see a ton of disruption from Helene on its own. But you start stacking these events on each other—you add in another hurricane and there’s a few other things from seasonality going on—those issues compound themselves, and it creates additional disruption within the supply chain space.”
If you’re not already thinking about supply chain resilience, the time to act is now. Contact us to learn more about ways we can help you keep production lines flowing.