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16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2021 culties in moving stuff from China and South- east Asia to Europe was a real nightmare. I sympathize with folks who work in supply chain because there's going to be a lot of talk about risk and assurance of supply for the next few years; everybody is going to remember the pandemic. But the extreme pressure on cost and price is not going away. e memory of the pandemic will fade, but the cost pressures will always be there. Right now, the pendulum will swing toward higher cost and higher assurance of supply. But I predict, maybe five to 10 years in the future, people will return to those cost and price pressures again. Matties: If you don't have a second source for your supply line, you may be held hostage to what you have. Rodgers: Good point. How do we create a diversified supply? Do we have enough power as a buyer to influence suppliers and get them to diversify? Can we get them to locate other production facilities? If so, it gives us all a lower risk and more confidence. Obviously, big buy- ers have that kind of power to make that kind of stuff happen, but smaller buyers are going to be stuck shopping around. Matties: Let's bring it down to scale, with small companies of 100–200 employees. What do they do in their supply chain management to build? Rodgers: e good news here is that we have the internet. We don't have to go to the yellow pages anymore and rely on local buy- ers. Online marketplaces can help us iden- tify alternate suppliers. Of course, there's always uncertainty when you work with a brand- new supplier, and there's not a lot of appetite for business travel these days, so it's really hard to assess a supplier without actually walking the factory floor. Smaller companies will have to take some chances; rely on referrals. ey also need to understand where their company is going. It's not just about what they need to buy today, but what they need tomor- row and the year aer. e supply chain needs to be there when we get there—in five or 10 years, will we have a supply chain that can sup- port that? In supply chain, you can't just be a buyer who executes purchase orders. You need to think strategically. What kind of sup- pliers are we going to need? What's happen- ing in the world? For example, what's happen- ing in Myanmar right now? Some people were thinking that Myanmar would be a good place for electronics manufacturing, but not quite so much anymore. Matties: In our industry, as you know, counter- feit is a big issue. In my mind, that's probably one of the greatest risks. Rodgers: Yes, and not even realizing it. If you're a small company, how are you supposed to avoid that? I really sympathize with them. Lowest price probably comes with way too many risks. You will pay a bit more to have confidence, but how do you make those decisions? If these suppliers in places like China are being used already, then there's going to be a trail of some kind; there are going to be clients and custom- ers who've had experience working with them. If they don't have a trail, that's a red flag. Matties: When you look at inventory manage- ment, what messaging do you share with your students? Obviously, big buyers have that kind of power to make that kind of stuff happen, but smaller buyers are going to be stuck shopping around.