Just-In-Time: The Buffer Was Hiding Something
Cutting inventory frees a lot of cash. The original reason for cutting it was different — stock conceals late suppliers and broken machines, and removing it forces them into view.
Topic
Supply Chain & Logistics
Vertical Integration: Owning the Step That Decides the Product
Buying from specialists is usually cheaper, and sometimes it means you cannot be better than anyone else. The right boundary moves as an industry matures — and rarely gets revisited.
Supply Chain and Logistics: The Ocean Is Cheap, the Doorstep Is Not
Crossing an ocean can cost less per item than the final eight kilometres. Once you see logistics as handling events rather than distance covered, most of the field makes sense.
Semiconductors: Everything Depends on a Handful of Buildings
Chip design is spread across hundreds of firms. Making the advanced ones happens in very few places — and that single asymmetry explains the shortages, the politics, and the fragility.
The Amplification of Panic: The Bullwhip Effect and Supply Chain Volatility
A five percent shift in consumer demand stopped the world's car factories. The distortion happens on the way upstream — and it is entirely rational at every step.
Feedback Loops: Why Structure Beats Effort Every Time
A shower with a four-second lag will defeat anyone. The oscillation is a property of the loop, not the person — and most organisational dysfunction works exactly the same way.
The Illusion of Local Optima: The Theory of Constraints and Systems Bottlenecks
A factory running at 98% capacity can still fail to deliver. Optimising everything except the bottleneck is not progress — it is an expensive illusion.