In his June 2021 editorial, ASSEMBLY’s editor in chief John Sprovieri discussed President Biden’s February executive order to review critical U.S. supply chains. I would like to build on John’s analysis and offer advice to the Biden administration.
John writes, “Last year’s shortages…opened a lot of eyes in board rooms and in Washington.” Indeed, they did. Reshoring by U.S. companies increased 167 percent in 2020 to set an all-time record of 109,000 jobs brought back to the U.S. From March to December 2020, about 60 percent of reshoring cases cited COVID as the primary reason. About half of the reshoring cases were directly rated to making personal protective equipment and other medical products. The rest were motivated to avoid the disruptions experienced by the medical industry.