Managing surge capacity is vital

Surge capacity is simply the ability to get men & materials together with machinery & equipment on one hand and system & structure on the other to meet up with the unexpected uptick in demand for goods & services.

Although surge capacity was generally identified as pressing issue in the health sector earlier, today it is more relevant in military warfare and geoeconomics. The Ukraine war taught a bitter lesson in strategic management for the Global North, who thought that America and NATO would be able to pool all their military might under harness in terms of stocking of Soviet Era weaponry and their own modern systems in the fight against Russia.

The assumption was Russia won’t be able to marshal production and technology to go in parallel with what the west showcased. There was a missing link: surge capacity. As the war raged most munitions were run through steeply and replenishments were hard to come by. It was the question of “gun without bullets”. On the other hand Russia put its factory on war footing and production went unhindered in order to supply and re-supply used up munitions.

The problem for the West later developed into inadequacy of hard assets such as tanks and heavy materials that were destroyed in the process that cannot be resupplied. The buck returned to Washington and NATO to put up their surge capacity to counter the degree and potency of Russian attack. The fact of the matter is US arms manufacturers could not cope up with the snowballing demand dynamics.

In the short term it was still possible to cut corners and re-allocate resources that were meant for other needs. What dogs the management of these arms manufacturers was the non-availability of specialised materials and skilled labour along with urgent financing. The absence of outsourcing weighing upon them  in general and  US military in particular decision was made to dip deep into the existing stocks or resort to shipping out dated and outmoded weapons and/or munitions that later sank in the battle field when pitted against the fierce onslaught of the Russian Army.

Unsurprisingly, this lowered the image of western weapons in the global arms bazaar. Russia won the war twice over one in the military space and other in geoeconomics space.

I understand that most Asian & African nations are signing up with Russia to provide them with sophisticated state-of-art weapons and related munitions. The big blow for the Global North is the unpalatable fact of the re-emergence of North Korea once again becoming arms supplier with good business opportunity knocking on her door. Surely she has the surge capacity along with Russia to provide all of the arms requirements. Once again it is geoeconomics that is stupid!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist