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Order and chaos are like yin and yang in Supply Chains.
Every supply chain experiences bouts of orderly performance, interspersed with spells of chaos. Innumerable efforts to eliminate chaos have failed over time. Why is it that chaos can’t be eliminated and why we shouldn’t even try to wish it away?
If we go back to Physics, it is now widely accepted that certainty and uncertainty co-exist in nature. Uncertainty just can’t be eliminated, whatever we may try. These two, in turn, lead to order and chaos in any complex inter-dependent system such as supply chains.
Why should we wish chaos away? Will supply chains perform better if chaos is eliminated? If we think deeply, order is associated with structure and chaos is associated with surprise. Both are necessary for progress. In absence of surprises, supply chains will probably stagnate at their current level of performance.
If structure and surprises are both necessary for progress, we should expect, rather welcome, both order and chaos to be present in supply chains. Every instance of chaos gives us an opportunity to improve our supply chain performance!
Let’s embrace both and stop wishing chaos away!