Well-established supply chains are an essential part of private and global trade, since they ensure that goods and services reach customers and make a profit for companies. However, various political, economic, technological, environmental, and other world changes affect supply chains and force companies to be flexible in their design. For this reason, in his articles, Beamon explores future changes in the world and their impact on supply chain design, management, and integration.
Beamon begins its study by assessing potential changes in supply chains’ input and output. He says natural resources exhaustion and climatic changes will raise the prices of raw materials and fuels that will force producers to reduce their use or cut human resources to decrease supply chain costs. The author also suggests that these changes will push manufacturers to create recyclable products and use alternative energy sources to reduce the amount of solid waste and turn some or all of the outputs into inputs. The author continues his research by studying food supply and relief chains in detail as they have specific features; for example, the use of bioengineering to grow crops. In the next part, Beamon predicts the effects the changes will have on supply chain design, management, and integration. The author concludes that companies will gradually begin to move away from a centralized system but will increasingly use a collaborative approach and open-sourcing to neutralize the influence of expensive fuels and raw materials. In addition, according to the author, companies will create residual-based, closed-loop systems to reduce waste and cost of manufacturing products.
Therefore, Beamon, in his article, analyzes in detail current trends and predicts the future of supply chains. Conclusions of the author provide a general idea of the problems that society will face and companies will need to solve in designing and managing supply chains, as well as options for their solution. Consequently, this article is a useful resource for studying the influence of external factors on business supply processes.