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Is there any way to model a supply chain as a control system? Like what you're describing is why PID controllers exist and they do a pretty good job of preventi
by unlinked_dll 7y ago
Is there any way to model a supply chain as a control system? Like what you're describing is why PID controllers exist and they do a pretty good job of preventing failure conditions.
- csours 7y agoPeople do, but there's too much chaos and too many individual actors making crazy decisions.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoPID controllers have a closed system -- the system is gonna do X, Y, or Z, but that's about it. Maybe expand out those options by an order of magnitude, but it's still fairly limited compared to all of the weird clusterfucks that happen in the real world. Like, who foresaw COVID? Who foresaw fidget spinners? etc. How do you plan for a central supply system when a news story about kids eating Tide pods drops the demand (increasing the supply) by 20% overnight? The soviets essentially tried to do this with a communist style-command economy -- and it didn't work well. Maybe modern tech can do it better but it would have to be able to predict the social, political, and logistical challenges enough to outperform the alternatives.