Global Materials, Logistics and Labor Trends, With Joel Knox and Brian Whitlock

The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by Joel Knox and Brian Whitlock to discuss the current state of labor, logistics and materials conditions for supply chain leaders around the world.

Looking at the broad trends over the last two years through the lens of the Monthly Supply Chain Alert: July 2022, the metrics show that — simply put — it’s been a rough time for supply chains. For supply chains to thrive, materials, logistics and labor have to come together and move in the right direction. Not only was that not happening, but the metrics show that the polar opposite was occurring. Materials, logistics, and labor were all moving in the wrong direction in terms of availability and price across all major manufacturing regions. Conditions in key commodities began to slowly improve in 1Q22 until the Russian invasion of Ukraine and lockdowns in China because of COVID-19 reversed those nascent trends.

These metrics are also beginning to show the barest hints of an overall improvement in logistics, labor and materials, but far from a return to pre-COVID-19 conditions.