January 8, 2021. – The vaccine market is hot. Every nation in the world is craving for the covid vaccinations. At the same time, each country is unhappy with the low shot volume they are receiving. Customers are not getting what they have ordered. Supply chain is lagging behind. The situation reminds me of a typical up-market in the plywood business. In plywood nobody’s health is at stake but constantly late deliveries can drive business people crazy.

Production ramp-up can be a painfully slow process. Unexpected things happen all the time. Software issues. Hardware problems. People get ill and you don’t find back up. After a good production day, you easily start to believe that you have reached a new output level. You haven’t. It is one step forward and two steps back. Unnoticed progress starts to occur with constant improvements in the supply chain. The same learning curve applies to vaccines as to plywood. 

I hope we get the vaccinations rolling out. Perhaps the health industry could then release the bull market to other businesses. Plywood is ready for that!