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Is Murphy a friend or a foe?
Supply chain professionals are full of stories on how Murphy has hit them over all these years. Since these stories talk only about its negative impact, can someone really call Murphy a friend? Sounds pretty odd…
Let’s think about it. The way Murphy hits us, it also hits our competitors at different times. If a competitor’s factory has a strike or is hit by a calamity, or their trucks break down, their products suffer a significant availability issue in the market place. Their stockouts are our gains, isn’t it? Do we give Murphy the credit for such windfalls? We normally don’t. It’s really the ‘Confirmation Bias’ at play which gives Murphy the bad name.
If Murphy attacks are randomly distributed across various companies, facilities and processes, Murphy should be neutral... neither a friend nor a foe.
Having said that, there is a way to befriend Murphy so that it benefits us more than the competition. Will cover it in my next post…