The Achilles Heel of the U.S. Food Industries: Exposure to Labor and Upstream Industries in the Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Zia Wahdat ◽  
Jayson Lusk
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
María Fabiana Jorge

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus there is a new realization of the vulnerabilities of the U.S. drug supply chain. However, while such concerns may have been amplified by the pandemic, they preceded Covid-19 and were well documented before 2020. Indeed, in past years the U.S. Congress held several hearings addressing potential vulnerabilities in the U.S. drug supply chain, in part due to the increasing dependency on China as a dominant supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and some finished pharmaceutical products. These vulnerabilities go well beyond health policy and constitute a national security concern. The article addresses how U.S. trade policy plays a significant role in shaping the pharmaceutical industry at home and abroad and is in part responsible for some of the current vulnerabilities of the U.S. drug supply chain.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine D. Drake ◽  
Nathan C. Goldman ◽  
Frank Murphy

We examine the effect of foreign employment on two outcomes-income shifting and the tax uncertainty of foreign transactions. Using a hand-collected sample of employment disclosures, we partition our sample into firm-years with a higher or lower degree of foreign employment. Using two distinct income shifting models, we document that, on average, a high degree of foreign employment is associated with greater tax-motivated income shifting out of the U.S. We also posit and find that a high degree of foreign employment enhances the economic substance of foreign transactions, reducing the tax uncertainty associated with foreign income. We conduct additional analyses to mitigate selection bias concerns, and we use exogenous changes to the costs and benefits of income shifting using foreign employment to strengthen identification. Our results highlight firms' use of employees as part of a tax-efficient supply chain and how foreign employment enhances income shifting opportunities between jurisdictions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (10) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan S. Brown

For 30 years, additive manufacturing has made all sorts of promises. Yet machines remained slow, materials expensive, and printers too inconsistent for critical parts. And additive was costly. Today, however, the technology is turning that past on its head. While additive manufacturing is usually the most expensive way to make any part, it makes economic sense for supply chains. Which is why manufacturers of everything from aircraft and rolling stock to appliances, industrial equipment, and medical devices are looking at 3-D supply chain solutions—as are the U.S. Marines and UPS. This special report looks at how additive manufacturing is disrupting business models and transforming supply chains.


Author(s):  
C. James Kruse ◽  
Kenneth N. Mitchell ◽  
Patricia K. DiJoseph ◽  
Dong Hun Kang ◽  
David L. Schrank ◽  
...  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for the maintenance of federally authorized navigation channels and associated infrastructure. As such, USACE requires objective performance measures for determining the level of service being provided by the hundreds of maintained navigation projects nationwide. To this end, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center partnered with Texas A&M Transportation Institute to develop a freight fluidity assessment framework for coastal ports. The goal was to use archival automatic identification system (AIS) data to develop and demonstrate how ports can be objectively compared in relation to fluidity, or the turnaround time reliability of oceangoing vessels. The framework allows USACE to evaluate maintained navigation project conditions alongside port system performance indices, thereby providing insight into questions of required maintained channel dimensions. The freight fluidity concept focuses on supply chain performance measures such as travel time reliability and end-to-end shipping costs. Although there are numerous research efforts underway to implement freight fluidity, this is the first known application to U.S. ports. This paper covers AIS data inputs, quality control, and performance measures development, and also provides a demonstration application of the methodology at the Port of Mobile, Alabama, highlighting travel time and travel time reliability operating statistics for the overall port area. This work provides foundational knowledge to practitioners and port stakeholders looking to improve supply chain performance and is also valuable for researchers interested in the development and application of multimodal freight fluidity performance measures.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janpriy Sharma ◽  
Mohit Tyagi ◽  
Arvind Bhardwaj

PurposeOutbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has created the catastrophic situation, it has crippled all the economic activities and seized off the operations of food supply chain (FSC). Disrupted FSC escalated the societal concerns related to food safety and security. The purpose of this study is to consolidate various issues, exploring the perspectives associated with the agricultural practices, food industries and society concerns related with the FSC performance system dynamics amid of COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachTo structure this work, a detailed research literature insight focussing on the key findings associated with the past disease outbreaks like influenza, avian flu, Ebola, bird flu, SARS, foot and mouth disease and ongoing phase of COVID-19, encompassing the perspective related with various agricultural and concerned supply chain practices is clustered. Furthermore, issues having relevancy with the notion of this work, sourced from platforms of print and electronic media have been incorporated to ground the reality associated with the impacts, for better visualisation of the perspectives.FindingsThis study outlays the key findings which are relevant with the past pandemic outbreaks from the core of the research literature. It details the impact of the current COVID-19 scenario on the various FSC operations, focussing on dimensions allied with the industry, economic and society concerns. For the same, to mitigate the effects, relief measures focussing on the short- and long-term perspectives have been incorporated. Steps ramped up by the Government of India (GOI) to safeguard masses from the threat of food security, accelerate pace of the FSC operations and upscale operating capacities of the industries and agriculture practices have incorporated.Research limitations/implicationsPresented work is persuaded amid of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions hence it outlays the theoretical perspectives only. But, these perspectives portray the ongoing scenario's impacts, extending its implication to the people coming from the industry and academia background. This study can felicitate the government bodies to make them familiar with the various impacts which indented the FSCs, food industries and added woes to the society concerns.Originality/valueIndia is the second largest populated nation of the world, and outspread of the COVID-19 has capsized the FSCs and raised the various instances, making population vulnerable to the threats of food insecurity. This study encompasses effect of the FSC disruption by incorporating its effect on the food industries practices, societal issues and extending possible relief measures to restructure the FSC dynamics. As of now, study focussing on the Indian FSC concerns, detailing of impacts due to pandemic outbreak, relief measures to sail out of the hard times are not available.


Author(s):  
Navee Chiadamrong ◽  
Tran Thi Tham

Growing in the competitive environment, organizations need to find ways to improve their performance even better by ensuring that all key drivers are being developed and utilized effectively. Thai and Vietnamese food industries are rapidly growing sectors. This study investigates the relationships between supply chain capabilities and competitive advantages towards business performance, and compares the above mentioned relationships between Thai and Vietnamese food industries. The data were gathered from conducted surveys with the food manufacturing companies in both countries, and tested by Structural Equation Modeling. The empirical results show that supply chain capabilities play an important role in business improvement in both countries. While, supply chain integration is considered as a critical factor for the Vietnamese food industry, human resource management is much regarded as important for the Thai food industry. These findings help companies in each country decide the best strategy for differentiating themselves in their business environment.


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