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What Makes a Global Supply Chain Design Truly Efficient and Resilient?
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Jun 19, 2025
The intricate web of global supply chain management is the lifeline of today’s economy, seamlessly bridging the gap between production and consumption across international borders. With an ever-evolving landscape, businesses face many challenges—from unpredictable disruptions to staying compliant while embracing new technologies. In this episode of the #GlobalTradeGal podcast, Anita dives into what it really takes to design a supply chain that’s both flexible and future-ready. You can read more by clicking here (https://mondoro.com/optimizing-global-supply-chain-design/) about optimizing global supply chain design. #GlobalTradeGal #SupplyChainStrategy #LogisticsOptimization #GlobalBusiness #TradeTalks #SmartManufacturing #SupplyChainResilience #InternationalTrade Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/globaltradegal)
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hi this is Anita the global trade gal
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today I want to talk a little bit about
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global trade and in particular a little
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bit about disruptions in global trade
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lately in the news there's been a lot of
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talk about the tariffs in particular
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Trump's tariffs and there's a there's
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basically two sides of this there's
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those who think that all the
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manufacturing should come back to the
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United States and that America should
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produce everything themselves they don't
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care how much it costs just that we
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should be producing things ourselves and
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there's those who really believe in open
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and fair trade i of course you would
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understand among the the proponent for
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the latter one because I am basically
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somebody who believes that trade should
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be open and fair and I see the trade on
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a very personal level every single day
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let me try to explain a couple reasons
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why it is so difficult to change
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manufacturing or why it's difficult to
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move manufacturing to another place we
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have done this quite a bit where we have
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moved manufacturing from China to a
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factory in Vietnam and for anything that
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we produce which requires us to you know
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to basically to move that manufacturing
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it requires a lot more work for us in
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the short term until we get it exactly
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right you know you might think well it
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should be easy to just be able to you
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know match something up and to be able
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to make something in another location it
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actually can be extremely difficult and
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there's many reasons for that but some
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of the reasons are particularly in my
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industry which is home furnishing and
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home decor and let's take for an example
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that we're going to have a piece of
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furniture that was made in China
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previously and let's say it was made by
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another manufacturer not by us and we
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get the sample of that furniture piece
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and we're going to make it in Vietnam we
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need to first of all get the sample of
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the piece and then we need to do a
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counter sample of it meaning that we
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need to show that we can produce it as
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close or as similar as possible but each
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person in manufacturing can have some
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unique things there can be unique
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machinery that's used we don't know
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exactly what kind of paint have they
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previously used so we have to mix the
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color of the paint ourselves and get as
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close to it as we can we need to look at
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what techniques they've used and we need
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to be able to do all of those things so
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it could take us quite a while or at
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least a month or month to really be able
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to develop that sample and get a sample
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that we feel then that we can send on to
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our customer of our client then you need
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to take the time and send it on to the
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customer and client and then they need
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to check it and approve it and then
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production starts so when Trump says
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these things like he will give 90 days
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you know 90 days leeway for people that
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won't have to pay the high tariffs and
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can be able to move their production it
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just doesn't work so quickly because
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even with the 90 days if you take you
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know the fact that somebody's got to
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send you the sample maybe takes a week
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or so you have to look at the sample
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study the sample do a counter sample you
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know a lot of times people might say
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they can do within a week or so but if
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they haven't really been working on it
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and haven't quoted the prices it could
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take some time so you've got to look at
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the price quotes then you've got to look
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and you've got to decide okay I'm going
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to I'm I'm going to you we're going to
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produce a sample on this and then you
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produce a sample on it and then you know
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a lot of times the customer wants to see
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the sample before they do production so
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then you send the sample back and then
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they confirm it and then from there you
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start on the order right now you
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probably already have lost 30 maybe 45
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days for most things to produce overseas
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is 60 days you've already lost the time
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frame for the 90 days before the tariffs
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go up this would be the same process
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whether you were trying to move
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something to the United States or
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whether you're trying to move something
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to another country the process pretty
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much is the same so we live in a world
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where I always say to people that you
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know when it comes to this the global
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supply chain we are living in a world
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where the global supply chain is getting
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more and more difficult
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there are so many disruptions in the
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international global supply chain and it
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has definitely become worse
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so anyone who's in the global supply
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chain needs to look and say "How can I
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so-called navigate these choppy waters
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of the global supply chain how can I
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learn to be able to weather any type of
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storm?" A lot of it's difficult because
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there are some products which I'm
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helping some people source for now which
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really 90% of the business is done in
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China so if you have somebody who let's
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say produces 90% of all the toys for the
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world or um art supplies or other things
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like that those type of supply chains
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just do not move overnight why because
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you don't have the materials in place
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there is not the technology in place
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there are many other things that are not
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in place to be able to move it and then
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on top of that you have the capacity
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where you might even be able to find
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someone who can produce what you need
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but they may not be willing to produce
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it why they simply don't have the
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capacity because they like everyone else
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need to be able to train up workers get
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workers in they need to make sure the
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workers know what they're doing and they
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need to ensure that the quality is up to
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standard that is why moving supply
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chains or moving production is very
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costly and very complicated
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so you know you can do all you can to
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try to navigate these you know these you
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know so-called choppy waters you can try
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to you know you you can try to ensure
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that you know somehow you know maybe you
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feel like you have the magic formula but
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it really is not as easy as it seems
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because there's so many things that need
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to be looked at as I've said before it
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comes basically down to three basic
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things one is can someone produce the
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quality even though they're producing
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the products that you need it doesn't
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mean that they have the ability to
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produce the quality that you need those
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can be two very very different things
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quality
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can be something which could be
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basically a barrier within the supply
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chain itself the other thing is the
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price they need to be able to produce it
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at a price which is comparable or
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comparable within reason of what you're
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basically you're buying now when all of
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this came about with the tariffs where I
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was really looking at all of these
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tariffs and what are we going to do and
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and and everything I started looking at
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other places that we have not normally
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looked at for production places such as
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Malaysia and Singapore and I can tell
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you for some of the prices that I got
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from these other places our cost was 100
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to 300% higher than we are buying now in
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Vietnam and I know there's been similar
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things when I've looked at things from
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China to Vietnam where our cost in
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Vietnam was much higher than China so
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price is another one of the factors that
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must be looked at besides quality can
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they produce the quality can they
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produce it at the price and the last one
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is of course quantity you know even
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though if they can produce the quality
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and let's say somehow you're lucky they
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can do the price can they give you the
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quantity that you need that's one reason
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why a lot of the big manufacturers in
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the United State the big stores in the
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United States such as Walmart or you
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know you look at Walmart or Target or
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you know Home Depot or some of these
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others still continued to buy from China
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after the first round of tariffs that
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happened during the first Trump
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administration why because of the fact
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that they even if they could find maybe
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someone to produce the quality and even
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they could find someone to um produce it
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you know at a price that they could
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accept they couldn't find someone to
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produce the quantity that they needed
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they needed a much larger quantity and
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the China factories many of them are set
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up to be able to produce that huge
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quantity which is needed I mean there
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are factories that I've seen in China
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that are producing a thousand containers
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a month they if you can imagine you know
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a thousand containers a month you have
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to imagine how big that factory is how
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many workers it has how how much
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machinery it has and how efficient and
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effective a factory like that would be
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to be able to produce those type of
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quantities you think about it that they
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would be loading you know how many
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containers they would need to load every
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single day or every single workday to be
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able to do that it's a lot so you'd have
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to have the people that can do the
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loading you have to have people that can
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do the you know do all the documents you
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have to have all of that in place in
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order to ship that type of quantity
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that's why when we talk about things
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like the global supply chain why
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disruptions in it like has been
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happening now are so difficult and so
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hard to fix and they're difficult and
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hard to fix in the short term it really
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really takes a long-term process because
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it is not easy my co-orker James Johnson
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has written a blog entitled optimizing
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global supply uh chain design and in
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there he talks about some of the
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disruptions risk management regulatory
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compliances and how complex they can be
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you know technologies and integration
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and and other things like that and you
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we'll put a link to his blog in our
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description in case you're you know
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interested and be able to read more and
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learn more about this but I wanted today
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to really focus on basically you know
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one area of this which is basically the
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disruption of the supply chain and how
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difficult it is to change the supply
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chain and change it overnight it is not
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easy it is extremely
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difficult and on top of that I just want
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to point out that there are many things
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which we produce which will not come
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back to America things such as basket
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weaving or you know I believe like
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furniture making you know those can be
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sort of messy businesses to be in if you
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go into a furniture factory there can be
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dust there can be sawdust and other
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things and and there's just not the
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skill and I don't think like Americans
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want to sit in their home and weave
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baskets you know they they just don't
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want to do it at a price that would be
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even that that you know wouldn't mean
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that the basket you're suddenly buying
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is going to cost you $1,000 they just
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don't want to do that those are not the
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industries that are going to come back
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and so where I'm all for you know
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manufacturing coming back in America but
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I think it needs to be targeted
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manufacturing and not the manufacturing
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that America will not do again there's
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no point at all in us putting attacks on
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things such as vanilla when we don't
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produce vanilla or baskets when we don't
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weave baskets or furniture when there's
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so little furniture production of the
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type that we do or you know other types
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of things like hand painting or lacquer
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or mother of pearl or other things like
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that which are just not done in the
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United States anymore we hope that
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you've enjoyed this and this little bit
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of wisdom that I'm giving and that you
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