Supply Chains.

The world has been shrinking for the last hundred years. Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers might have transformed the world in a million ways with the Model T and airplane, but 72% of the planet's surface is still covered by water. Canoes, boats and ships are as much a part of Human DNA as the wheel and fresh drinking water. The world economy literally runs on water.

Objects in the rear-view mirror may appear closer than they are: The $104+ trillion-dollar world economy has been experiencing all types of disruptions and gyrations in the last 48 months. It has gotten very serious. Covid was part of the dynamic, but there are many other risks and compression points in the systems, also. Consider 80% of the world’s economy is based on global manufacturing and transportation systems that carry the sneakers and new iPhone you ordered last week on Amazon to your front porch, and food and fuel you consume daily to your kitchen table and gas tank. The backbone and skeleton of the world economy are the 103,000+ (UNCTAD STAT 2022) merchant cargo, oil tankers, and bulk ships; and 360+ deep water ports around the world. This massive flotilla of ships travel 11 well-defined shipping routes and systems connecting every continent and city to a dynamic manufacturing and distribution ecosystem. Some of the systems are within continents such as the St Lawrence Seaway System; it stretches more than 2,300 miles with 13 Canadian locks and 2 American locks lifting ships up a total of 601 feet of elevation from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior. The 120-mile long Suez Canal System. The 48-mile long Panama Canal System with new, double lanes that opened in 2016. All remarkable human engineering wonders that connect so many important dots in our global transportation systems.

As a young kid, I would often ride a bike down - and stand on the shore with friends - to watch domestic and international ships travel up and down the St Lawrence Seaway System. Enormous ships as big as The Death Star closely passing each other in quiet, orderly unison. We believed the world was a gigantic place with far-away, exotic lands and people - and these ships were going there. We wondered where they were from - and where they were going? Were they carrying grain from Western Canada to China? Forestry products from Ontario or Manitoba to Japan? Beef products from Alberta to Germany or Africa? Iron ore from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota to the steel plants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania? Thousands of ships from more than 50 nations travel this system every year moving 200 million tons of cargo; the Panama Canal moves 510 million and The Suez Canal moves 123 million. The Bank of Montreal (BMO) estimates that almost 30% of both American and Canadian jobs are dependent on the mechanics and economic activity of this critical Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Seaway System.

This type of shipping activity captured the imagination of a young Samuel Langhorne Clemens of Hannibal, Missouri (pen name, Mark Twain) along the Mississippi Seaway back in the 1840s. To "Mark Twain" literally means to "mark two"; or ensuring there is 12 feet of draft - two 6-foot arm-lengths - for a boat to navigate safely on the water without hitting rocks or other hidden objects below the surface. He had a short stint as a Riverboat Captain before the Civil War started. That is why a clever, young Sam took that pen name and the world will appreciate his wit and writing for eternity. As young kids in the 1970s watching these engineering marvels move in synchronicity on the Great Lakes, we would emphatically wave to the workers on deck; often they would wave back. Canadian kids acting as global ambassadors in a small way. Years later I would earn my First Mate and 4th Class Marine Engineering license and certifications from Transport Canada and work on that remarkable seaway system and important set of Soo Locks (The Soo Locks, Sault Ste Marie) during college years. You become intimate with the details of most ships: designs, names, sizes, cargo types and carrying capacities, engines and navigation technology, and flags. Both the so-called giant 1000-foot "Lakers" and massive, 1,500-foot ocean ships working the global waterways are impressive engineering machines.

The scope and variations of these fleets is mind-boggling: more than 7,500 giant oil tankers, 40,000-plus cargo ships sometimes carrying 16,000-20,000 containers each. Most of those containers each hold 20-30 tons of materials/goods. The super-oil tankers carry over 80- million gallons of crude oil. Many remember in March, 2021 when the 1,300-foot long ship called Ever Given, one of the larger types of container ships, got stuck sideways in the Suez Canal System at its most narrow point. It took an army of Egyptian ground crews six days to get the ship unstuck, held up hundreds of ships on both sides of the system, and gave the world’s distribution system a giant black eye - costing over $70 billion in lost global trade. Everyone remembers the Exxon Valdez tragedy in 1989 when 11 million gallons of oil spilled into the Prince William Sound in Alaska. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the 1975 sinking of the 730-ft lake freighter on Lake Superior, The SS Edmund Fitzgerald; it rests in over 630 feet of water today and the song still plays on the airwaves across the planet. (The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald music video) . The largest ship in the world is a monster: The Prelude is 1,601-feet long, 243 wide, and sits 90 feet low in the water when fully loaded. Some estimates are that it cost $17 billion to build. An engineering marvel with technology that rivals Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, considered the single most important human innovation marvel of all time.

It is important to understand there is a massive, advanced, complex and highly-dynamic global supply chain system - that is mostly invisible to the average person – connecting 100 million large and small production companies with 8 billion consumers on our tiny little planet. Raw materials need to be shipped to integrated steel manufacturers. Crude oil needs to be shipped to refineries. Manufactured components need to arrive just-in-time to finished-goods producers. Brand-new running shoes and toys need to be transported to your local Walmart distribution center. Eyeglasses and contact lenses need to be delivered efficiently to your eye doctor's office. In America, you need to see clearly, but can never have enough stuff.

For those who study the global supply chain systems, it is a relatively fragile network of systems that can be easily disrupted, damaged or destroyed. Predictability and trust are foundations. New technology and volatile energy costs magnify every single one of the millions of variables within the system; it is a highly dynamic, interdependent and innovative network. Competitive business models and enterprises are moving towards efficient supply chain technology and systems; towards single-source models and away from disintermediation models. The biggest and most important cornerstone to this entire system??The number of deep-water seaports, skilled captain and crews, new technology, and the design and effectiveness of the new mega-ship. Moving any commodity or produced good from Point A to Point B on this planet is no easy task. It can be hard to understand the thinking, design, human energy and technology required to make our lives wonderful and carefree. We get frustrated when our online order takes a few extra days to arrive. Consider the world has changed dramatically; there are currently more than 400 ships routinely anchored off both U.S. coastlines waiting for their turn to dock and offload cargos of oil, raw materials, finished goods, and a lot of the items on your Christmas Wishlist. And you thought it was all so simple.

Mark Twain famously quipped that "It is hard to see with your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." I enjoy looking out the window at 30,000 feet when flying around this small planet - and search for tiny ships dotting the horizon. I've observed them from the sky out in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Artic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Over the Mediterranean Sea, The Black Sea, and the South China Sea. Simple little dark marks floating all alone out on the vast, endless ocean. It captures my imagination. Much like Captain Phillips on the Maersk Alabama ("You're Safe Now" | Captain Phillips) , those captains and crew maintaining our global supply chains are Super Heroes. Things that seem so simple are really so complex and interesting and fragile. The human ingenuity, technology, people and energy needed for a functional global supply chain is fascinating. Something to consider the next time we point-and-click when ordering that delicious and exciting luxury item in the quiet comfort of our home.