Out Of The Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us many things, chief among them that supply chains trimmed for efficiency do not allow for much flexibility when it comes to excess demand. Most countries were unable to provide sufficient capacity in terms of ventilators, intensive care, medical equipment, and staff necessary to deal with the number of cases requiring urgent care simultaneously, simply because supply chains were not equipped to deal with such a spike in demand. There is no such thing in our human existence as infinite capacity, and it would be foolish to continue to suggest there is. To emerge from this crisis and avoid its repetition, we must understand how to make and do more with the resources we have available.