Companies with branches and/or business partners in the USA have been noticing it for weeks: Nothing works there today because the United States of America declared its political – and economic – independence from Great Britain 241 years ago today.
However, in a networked world in which components, materials and articles come from literally every corner of the globe, independence is one of those things. When are public vacations or vacation periods where? How long will my supplier’s machines be idle? How much material do I have to order in advance so that my production or sales can continue?
These issues also apply to a lesser extent within national borders, of course – but here delivery and freight times are generally not an additional major factor when ordering.
And so we are all somehow dependent on each other – producers on suppliers, on the cultural and social factors that influence production and on the technical support provided by computers, software, communication media and so on.
Fortunately, there are solutions for planners and purchasers that automatically take into account suppliers’ public vacations and vacation days, including delivery and freight times as well as economic freight quantities, and create corresponding order proposals for the respective materials. So the well-deserved celebrations of independence – of whatever kind – are at least not a headache for the planning department.
