How to Be Cool at Dinner Parties

About this Episode

Do your non-manufacturing friends think about where things come from? Or when? Or how much? In this episode, Madi and Russ discuss mainstreaming of manufacturing technology problems from supply chain management to skilled worker shortages. Manufacturing has accounted for less than 10% of all US jobs going back to the 2008 recession, which means limited reach for shop talk at the dinner table. But the 2020s have been weird, and these days you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a manufacturing-related headline.

LINK DUMP

• Shortages of all kinds of things have gone mainstream; also, shortages of people
• Apple’s AirTag brings consumer-grade track and trace to airline baggage, then gets banned
• UPS was a pioneer in delivery route planning; the R&D torch may have since passed to Amazon
• When it comes to the manufacturing labor market in the US, the numbers paint a sobering picture for what’s yet to come
• #supplychaintok