Chew Wee Li (0311976) - Section 9 - First Article
Based on the article by ‘The Economist’, on banning hosepipe use, this remains as a poor solution to water shortage. Every household is facing a dilemma after the ban came into force on April 5th. Considering the change in weather in England, the problem with water shortage occurs mainly from dry winter seasons. The government has come up with a law on anyone caught using a hose casually will be fined £1,000. And for those who wanted to own a luxurious fountain or swimming pool, can forget of getting one now.
Fortunately, water shortage happens because of the methods used in transporting it, not by its consumption. The outlook for scarcity is ignored when two in seven people went against the rule of forbidding hoses. Moreover, water firms have discouraged plans to set up hose hotlines enabling customers to steal from their neighbors. Metering is able to counter this issue efficiently, providing that thefts for hoses do not rise consistently in any neighboring area.
The law of low in supply and high in demand states that prices in unregulated market would rise. With the value in goods rises, consumers will still purchase basic goods because it remains as a necessity for them. The Internet provides many ways in handling this issue without being caught by the law of the country itself. One of the few examples are avoiding dengue cases by cleaning the front lawn at a weekly basis, or even blasting away potentially slippery moss that is concern by both safety-and-health reasons. Methods in gaining what they want vary and leading only to one goal, profits. Water can be used as long as it is utilized professionally, and not in wastage. In result, the hose ban aims to maintain its market price by reducing the quantity of water consumed.
What about the heavy water users? Another bright idea would be initiating flexible contracts with heavy water users. This can reduce water shortage during periods of drought and charging them for each liter they have used. Water companies on the other hand, will lose more money but gains more water at hold. This is regarded as a surplus. Heavy water users must then purchase water at a much higher price. Another alternative would be back to metering again, pricing all water users according to availability. It is true that by doing so, will be a much expensive plan, but it can be a very successful establishment once corrected.
This brings us to maintain a balance between supply and demand in supply chain. Fresh water, petroleum, metals, and crops rely on supply chains. Without the quantity, quality, and location of these resources, the supply chain’s consistency and logistics costs would deeply be affected. Based on the article ‘Supply Chain: Management Review’, by John. E. Bell, on Natural Resource Scarcity in the Supply Chain, since the beginning of Industrial Revolution, resource scarcity has typically been overcome by the ability of technology to find substitute products or discover new sources of natural resources. Judging by the rate of global demand and the scarcity of resources on the planet, substitutions may not overcome the imbalance. The question now is how will managers of tomorrow construct and manage a supply chain that is uncertain of natural resource scarcity?
Our every day products consumed consists of industrial and services processes from natural resources. All of these processes occur around the globe. This is broken down to non-renewable or renewable resources. Non-renewable resources include minerals that cannot be reproduced in an instant, while renewable resources can be re-generated in quick amounts of time. The main problem with non-renewable resources is the global affect to unpredicted change in weather, from deforestation and open burning, to dumping waste into river streams. For example, to meet local demands, coal is transported to overseas as it is locally scarce and provides much use to the economy section. Unless a substitute is found to replace coal, the prices for resources may rise up and, thus changing the supply chain regularly.
There are seven forces that shape the current scarcity level of natural resource. Substitution, recovery, discovery, and reclamation are the one’s which decrease the resource’s scarcity level and aid in continued availability. However, consumption, degradation, and competition, increases a resource’s scarcity level. Recently speaking, these current forces have proven to play as an important role to create local or even global scarcity. Unlike back in the past days, technology is limited to commit any motives for substitution or discovery. New materials are created in order to substitute for a scarce resource, but soon find that challenging mainly because of the growing consumption and competition caused by the increased levels of population and economic growth around the world.
Scarcity is already a major factor to companies and industries all over the globe. Major corporations are taking precautions in avoiding any unwanted usage of scarce resources to save the environment. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributes the best to their consumers and environment with returning and recycling recyclable products. However, there are signs from around the world that resource scarcity is a major threat in supply chains. As a result, companies have to think ahead and counter this major crisis. Manufacturing companies can now feel the pressure with the drop in scarcity of resources on keeping up with demand. Scarcity is already making a significant impact to the supply chain without us realizing it.
The recovery of scare resources prevails when managers apply other approaches to appeal to this daily problem. By doing so, the supply chain will not be deeply affected, regardless whether the change be good or bad. Strategies are created to avoid the use of scarce resources in product designs while increasing the focus on recovery and reclamation. Moreover, rules on when and how to use scarce resources in product and service supply chains can be a really handy tool for the average working Joes. Educating the stakeholders with industry and government policies could manage the impact of natural resource scarcity well.
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