Wednesday in the Age of Reason-Munchausen (1988)

A recent Foreign Policy article about potential COVID-related problems for China manufacturers noted that many supply chains are too complex to fully comprehend. “‘Most companies simply have no way of knowing all the participants in their supply chain,’ said Michael Essig, a professor of supply management at Bundeswehr University in Munich, in 2019. He added, ‘Let’s assume that a global company like Volkswagen has around 5,000 direct suppliers and that each has around 250 subcontractors. That means that the company has 1.25 million second-tier suppliers. With each additional step, the supply chain grows exponentially.’”

To paraphrase:

“Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.”

Perilous it is to involve oneself in a situation beyond one’s comprehension.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.