The on-again off-again nature of the Trump administration’s tariff proclamations is enough to give even the sanest person whiplash. … or have supply chain leaders playing Doechii’s viral hit “Anxiety” on their way to work each morning.
But you wouldn’t know it from the measured response and long-term optimism expressed by a panel of industry experts at a June press conference announcing the results of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) annual “State of Logistics Report.”
“Someone has to be calm,” quipped Noel Hacegaba, chief operations officer at the Port of Long Beach.
Hacegaba was not the only one who seemed to regard the tariff turmoil as “just another day at the office.”
“You have to understand that as logisticians, we have become used to [dealing with] a series of disruptions,” said Andy Moses, senior vice president of solutions and sales strategy for third-party service provider Penske Logistics. “And so, here’s another one. Is it challenging? Of course! But we’re still moving a lot of freight, we’re still executing on all our transactions. It’s not something I get overly dramatic about.”
Similarly, Brendan Dillon, senior vice president of global inventory management, transportation, and trade at Target, was matter-of-fact when he acknowledged that his company had seen some behavioral shifts among consumers due to the uncertain economy. He seemed relatively unphased that Target has had to shorten its planning cycles to be more responsive to changing economic conditions and trade policy. “It’s an arduous process, but one that we have gotten quite good at,” he said.
WERE THINGS EVER “NORMAL”?
It’s hard to forget the disruptions and sharp fluctuations in inventory levels caused by the pandemic and its aftermath. But even before that, life wasn’t “normal” for those of us working in the supply chain. In fact, the “State of Logistics Report” for 2019 called 2018 “the equivalent of a 100-year flood.” (That year saw rate increases and capacity constraints that caught a lot of major shippers flat-footed.) Indeed, there was more of a feeling of angst at that year’s press conference, with a vice president for megaretailer Walmart saying that reading the report was like “watching a bad movie again.”
It’s tempting to say that we’ve just become numb to the constant disruptions. But the Port of Long Beach’s Hacegaba argued that we are calmer in part because our supply chains have gotten stronger and more resilient.
“There were a lot of lessons learned from the pandemic,” he insisted. “Our terminals at the Port of LA and Long Beach … 1751041704 know how to handle these surges and peaks. We are handling more volume than we did back in 2022 during the supply chain crisis, but we are not seeing the backlogs, the delays, and the congestion.”
That’s partly because of all the additional capacity injected into the Southern California supply chain during that time. But Hacegaba also credits the “muscle memory” developed during the supply chain crisis. He says that terminals are being flexible about gate hours, and motor carriers and rail companies are doing a better job of balancing equipment.
Indeed, the entire panel expressed optimism for the future. Even Paul Bingham of S&P Global, representing the dismal science of economics, was very hopeful in that regard, noting that logisticians are well-equipped to handle the crises and disruptions they’re facing today and have the tools to address the problems.
The others expressed a firm belief that brighter days are ahead and that the nation will emerge stronger and better able to compete in the global economy.
Or as the always-measured Moses said, “There may be blips along that path, but the long-term trend is favorable. Looking ahead at next year, we may not be high-fiving like crazy, but we’ll probably high-five a bit.”
