How Strong is YOUR Supply Chain

By Mark Bigelow

Media sources are pounding the drums of supply chain woes happening at the Port of Los Angeles and other locations throughout the country. The newsrooms are spreading fear of Christmas gifts waiting on ships and containers waiting for delivery to the starving consumers of the United States. Companies are waiting for pieces, parts, electronics, and assemblies for final production. What’s the backlog of ships waiting in other locations along the western seaboard? How many of those ports have ships lined up waiting to be offloaded, and why aren’t we hearing about the fix rather than the problem? Is the media a friend or foe? You pick…

As a small business, we have developed strong relationships with 100’s of large and small businesses throughout the United States and internationally that produce products to support our mission. In turn, these same companies support a variety of companies and industries which fuel their production pipelines. We have talked with a lot of our suppliers and seen the growth in their companies through our relationship and yet companies continue to rely on China to support their supply chain. The desire for cheap labor and cost of goods fuels the balance sheet profit line which further supports the decision for overseas labor and products.

I recently read an article that talked about “US defense allies push to block new “Buy American” boost.” I find it hard to believe that 25 foreign military attaches are lobbying SASC and HASC members to strike this out of the NDAA. We should be strengthening our industrial base with increased work and effort to the small business community. Helping to grow small businesses into medium and eventually large businesses will only increase our industrial base; it will also grow and secure our defense industrial base.

Mettle Ops has spent the last five years carefully preparing our strategic development, strategy, and processes for the next level. Our success to date is due to the strength of our internal and external relationships. We welcome this opportunity along with our strategic teaming partners that are ready, willing, and able to accept your purchase orders, subcontracts, and prime contracting opportunities to bring business back to the United States.