Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1357726
10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team Tim Rodgers, a faculty instructor at the Uni- versity of Colorado Boulder, teaches oper- ations management and project manage- ment. Rodgers' background includes work at Hewlett-Packard, where he worked with Happy Holden among other industry lumi- naries, earning Tim credibility as an industry luminary himself. In this interview, Tim shares his take on the challenges and issues facing the supply chain in the upcoming year. He gives his advice for what supply chain managers need to be focusing on and the skills needed to succeed in supply chain management. Nolan Johnson: Tim, what do you see as some of the major issues right now in supply chain management? Tim Rodgers: Obviously, there's been a lot of diversification and interest in diversifying sup- ply chains. Most electronics supply chains are based in southern China in Guangdong Prov- ince. It's been that way for a long time, but for a lot of companies the pandemic has high- lighted the risks associated with having a geo- graphically concentrated supply chain. We're seeing that companies are interested in creat- ing a more diversified supply chain, but they're discovering that it's a lot harder than it looks. I was just reading a story the other day about Apple doing iPad assembly in Vietnam, but I would be willing to bet that over 90% of the components that go into those iPads are com- ing from the same factories in China, as always. I don't know if you remember this story from about 20–25 years ago, when Argentina decided to free itself of personal electronics that were made outside the country. One of their populist leaders decided to set up facto- ries in Tierra del Fuego to make smartphones, which was going to have the added benefit of providing local employment. Well, they had to import everything, which meant the cost of these smartphones that were made in Tierra Del Fuego were outrageously expensive com- Supply Chain Cost Management is a Holistic Business Approach