> In short: we've climbed the ladder and set it on fire behind us. This is a really good description of what JIT does when no one considers economic reflexivit

> In short: we've climbed the ladder and set it on fire behind us. This is a really good description of what JIT does when no one considers economic reflexivity. The time duration for problems to surface is long enough that no one can "do the right thing" and last past next quarter's or next year's financial performance assessment (whether internally or by financial analysts). So everyone participates in a game theoretic sensible fashion, and gets burned either an SKU at a time as single source or limited source manufacturers burn out their legacy equipment, or all at once with black swans like this pandemic. I'm certain no one who modeled JIT in business school research has worked out if it was more cash efficient to put up with and pay the piper when (not if) the disruptions happen, or to JIT only specific items that meet supply robustness criteria. The purchasing people mania for single sourcing plays into this dynamic. Supply chain management is enormously complex, but I fear they're still way behind the eight ball as they find out it gets fractally more complex than they had bargained for when they set out to cost rationalize it all.