Last fall, the Harvard Business Review examined Covid’s impact on supply chains. The pandemic, they wrote, “exposed vulnerabilities in the production strategies and supply chains of firms just about everywhere,”   

The study also presciently identified “the growing electronics content in modern vehicles” as a potential bottleneck. Today we are witnessing how the shortage of semiconductor chips is hampering auto production.   

Moving production in-house and increasing automation could help with uncertain labor and even social distancing. But consumers are demanding more choices, spawning a blizzard of SKUs. We love our Cheerios, but do we really need 23 varieties? (Including Pumpkin Spice, Limited Edition).