SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM)—If you’ve been having trouble getting ahold of your favorite products, or waiting weeks to get your car repaired, you’re not alone. Ongoing supply chain issues have caused shortages of everything from food items to auto parts to retail items.
Pandemic-related supply chain issues are impacting some of our local business.
“Lubricants, motor oil and that is one thing that is short. you have to change brands at times…We also do collision work and with owm sheet metal we’ve had quite a bit of problems with getting the sheet metal,” said David Vedovelli, owner of Lyndale Garage
Vedovelli said they’ve had to go to many different vendors to get the parts they need and because of that the prices of certain supplies are almost double.
He told Western Mass News that some parts that used to arrive overnight, are taking at least two days to deliver…and its worse with parts that use computer chips – like control modules.
“Those things are in short supply,” explained Vedovelli.
We’re digging deeper into why these issues are happening. Chair of integrative studies at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management, Anna Nagurney told us there are many factors that play a role.
“There were different issues at the beginning of the pandemic when essentially everything shut down and now we’re dealing all sorts of other kinds of issues and factors because we have the escalating omicron on top of everything…It’s the middle of winter so we have additional kinds of challenges. we’ve had ice storms in Massachusetts, We’ve had snow storms and there have been major storms all around the country too so obviously that will disrupt the delivery of goods,” said Nagurney.
She said there are many different supply chains for many different kinds of products and she describes each supply chain as a network, made up of producers, manufacturers, suppliers, freight service providers, warehouse operations, distribution center operators, and stores. Each link in the supply chain is critical, especially, Nagurney said, the workers.
Without workers, without labor nothing gets produced, nothing gets transported, nothing gets offloaded, nothing gets put on our shelves, nothing gets delivered to our doors,” said Nagurney
According to Nagurney — one of the biggest issues we’re facing right now boils down to staffing shortages.
“It’s taking a long time to offload the ships because you have a shortage of dock workers…We have a major shortage of truck drivers. they’re estimating about 80,000 of them.” Said Nagurney.
The workers that we do have, are being stretched thin.
“They’ve been asked to work additional hours and that’s difficult for them,” said Nagurney.
Nagurney said one-third of global manufacturing takes place in China, where they’ve been having targeted shutdowns of some of their major ports, causing supply chain disruptions.
“It’s taking about 4 months to get a lot of good from Asia for example and pre-pandemic it would take about two months,” said Nagurney.
She said consumers have to learn to adapt.
“There is food on the shelves even though you might not be able to get your favorite product, your favorite cut of meat, your favorite fruits and veggies at this time of the year,” said Nagurney.
As we look to the future, Nagurney said these problems will persist thru at least the end of 2022.
“A lot of executives are realizing that we have to envision different kinds of supply chains…I think we’re going to have to be doing more manufacturing in the us. we’re going to have to be more self-reliant. We might want to do for example short supply chains, shorter pathways from farm to table,” she said.
She adds that we need more support for the labor force.
“Workers need to be paid what they deserve,” said Nagurney.
She said the most important thing is to have good relationships between retailers and suppliers.
“If we work together, if there’s less competition and more cooperation, I think we can actually achieve great things,” said Nagurney.
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