Improving national resilience

[fantassin]

Finland encourages its population to store and prepare for 72 hrs without power, water etc.

Finland is probably the best prepared nation in Europe when it comes to resilience. Your average Finn living happily on 4-5 words a day, social isolation is not an issue....

 

[Eshaun]

I think having a Civil Defence Corps like old or a National Service on a reserve basis which trains people in things like logistics, field hospital creation, emergency planning and response, driving etc is needed and good for general resilience. Anyone who serves get 10% off their council tax and utilities for life. got to hook them somehow.

 

[Filthy_contract]

I think the argument goes something like "If we have a small number of larger contractors, we only have to manage and audit a limited number of suppliers. If we had every school make its own arrangements with small local contractors, how could we be sure that the small contractors weren't supporting the slave trade, sex-trafficking their employees, using suppliers of their own that we'd have to have them certify that they had vetted, that all consumables they used had fair-trade sourcing methods applied, that the small contractors were applying equal opportunity best practices, that parts and tools were certified to BS or CE standards, that all employees had been subjected to DBS checks, that risk assessments were applied to working at height, with children, in confined spaces, that PUWER regulations were followed and documented, that the contractors were compliant with Data Protection standards and regulations, that their transport fleet was properly licensed, insured and inspected."

Or something like that.

Having been on both side of the procurement tender box, I agree with much of what you say. The amount of information required for pre-qualification, and the processes that have to be followed, is eye-watering. However, if the local school decides to engage Mr Bob Smith as a handyman to do low-value repair jobs at the school because he is local and cheap, they also have to be prepared to undertake due diligence. He would (or at least should) go through DBS checking, confirmation of insurance cover, be a competent person to undertake a variety of jobs etc etc. I've seen this on Parish councils - when its suggested that some chap in the village is employed to do what seems a relatively simple job, until it is pointed out that the liability will rest with the PC. That focusses attention. It was the same when service personnel (SP) complained about the cost of replacing a lightbulb in barracks, for example. Although there is scope for blatant overcharging, many SP are naïve about how the real world works.

 

[Effendi]

Making the Food Supply Chain more resilient would cost large amounts of money, since it would pretty much have to be rebuilt from the ground up. So that's not going to happen.

By resilient you would have to mean longer, with more stock holdings rather than anything else.

It is a fact that the UK food supply chain, what they call from field to table, is 5 days long. Once the Japanese had computers and were doing computerbased manufacturing in the automotive industry some clever sod figured out that they did not need pallet loads of doors, wings, and front bumpers stacked up waiting for use. This was effectively dead stock that cost money and was also taking up expensive to build and maintain space. So the little buggers came up with just in time management (JIT). JIT was structured in such a way that just as the production line was getting down to the last couple of body panels another truck load full would arrive.

The system was beneficial in two ways:

1. They could utilise more factory space for production rather than using vast swathes of space for storage, and
2. They reduced capital investment in parts that just sat there waiting to be used. They now only pay for parts when they need them.

The principle of JIT spread across industry and found a home in the food supply chain. It means that Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury do not need to have vast warehouses full of baked beans and bog roll, eliminating/reducing their stock holdings and warehousing costs.

Back in the day, when I was a spotty yoof, and worked in Tesco as my saturday job, the warehouse above the store held more than the store. At a guess I would say that there was easily 3, possibly, 4 times more stashed away there. All idle cash which could also lose money for the company if stock was damaged, or spoiled. I doubt very much if the large store groups would go back to holding stock again. Nowadays the onus really falls to the individual to arrange their own stock holding for times of emergency.

 

[Nimbus]

Perhaps time to nationalise the NHS supply chain?

Perhaps the CEO of NHS Supply (Yes you Jin Sahota) should be asked what he’s been doing for his £200k+, being as all the supply problems were Boris’s fault...

 

[Werewolf]

By resilient you would have to mean longer, with more stock holdings rather than anything else.

It is a fact that the UK food supply chain, what they call from field to table, is 5 days long. Once the Japanese had computers and were doing computerbased manufacturing in the automotive industry some clever sod figured out that they did not need pallet loads of doors, wings, and front bumpers stacked up waiting for use. This was effectively dead stock that cost money and was also taking up expensive to build and maintain space. So the little buggers came up with just in time management (JIT). JIT was structured in such a way that just as the production line was getting down to the last couple of body panels another truck load full would arrive.

The system was beneficial in two ways:

1. They could utilise more factory space for production rather than using vast swathes of space for storage, and
2. They reduced capital investment in parts that just sat there waiting to be used. They now only pay for parts when they need them.

The principle of JIT spread across industry and found a home in the food supply chain. It means that Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury do not need to have vast warehouses full of baked beans and bog roll, eliminating/reducing their stock holdings and warehousing costs.

Back in the day, when I was a spotty yoof, and worked in Tesco as my saturday job, the warehouse above the store held more than the store. At a guess I would say that there was easily 3, possibly, 4 times more stashed away there. All idle cash which could also lose money for the company if stock was damaged, or spoiled. I doubt very much if the large store groups would go back to holding stock again. Nowadays the onus really falls to the individual to arrange their own stock holding for times of emergency.

Exactly. The system of JEJIT works perfectly well. Right up until the point things go Mammary Glands Vertical, and the average law abiding, civilised person is trying to beat their neighbour's head into a canoe because they grabbed the last two-pack of bog roll.

But that doesn't happen very often. Pandemics on the scale of COVID tend to be a once in a generation thing, and the Big Four are not going to spend huge amounts of money storing food they almost certainly won't need and can't sell.

It's one of the reasons the UK doesn't have an equivalent of the French CRS; a full time paramilitary heavy mob who's only job is to cave rioter's faces in, then arrest them for, Bleeding in a Public Area Without Due Care and Attention. Yes, it would have been nice to have thousands of extra Street Monsters during the 2011 Riots, the BLM inspired nonsense last year, or most recently when hundreds of retards decide social isolation doesn't apply to them and set up illegal raves or street parties. But for the most part, the police are more than capable of dealing with public disorder. The government doesn't like spending money on the coppers we already have, never mind a brand new heavy mob who's officers are going to spend most of the time standing around on their knuckles.

As always, money will drive decisions.

 

[History_Man]

Finland encourages its population to store and prepare for 72 hrs without power, water etc.

Finland is probably the best prepared nation in Europe when it comes to resilience. Your average Finn living happily on 4-5 words a day, social isolation is not an issue....

Sweden is similar in terms of the former.

 

[ericferret]

Cheese Gromit, but it's not Wensleydale!!!

 

[Yokel]

By resilient you would have to mean longer, with more stock holdings rather than anything else.

It is a fact that the UK food supply chain, what they call from field to table, is 5 days long. Once the Japanese had computers and were doing computerbased manufacturing in the automotive industry some clever sod figured out that they did not need pallet loads of doors, wings, and front bumpers stacked up waiting for use. This was effectively dead stock that cost money and was also taking up expensive to build and maintain space. So the little buggers came up with just in time management (JIT). JIT was structured in such a way that just as the production line was getting down to the last couple of body panels another truck load full would arrive.

The system was beneficial in two ways:

1. They could utilise more factory space for production rather than using vast swathes of space for storage, and
2. They reduced capital investment in parts that just sat there waiting to be used. They now only pay for parts when they need them.

The principle of JIT spread across industry and found a home in the food supply chain. It means that Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury do not need to have vast warehouses full of baked beans and bog roll, eliminating/reducing their stock holdings and warehousing costs.

Back in the day, when I was a spotty yoof, and worked in Tesco as my saturday job, the warehouse above the store held more than the store. At a guess I would say that there was easily 3, possibly, 4 times more stashed away there. All idle cash which could also lose money for the company if stock was damaged, or spoiled. I doubt very much if the large store groups would go back to holding stock again. Nowadays the onus really falls to the individual to arrange their own stock holding for times of emergency.

If Just in Time was so good, then how come it was replaced by things like Kanban? JiT meant that the customer had to wait for things to be built from scratch, and had no buffer against supply interruptions. Kanban keeps products at a state of near completion that can be finished at short notice, with a stock of others at different stages of manufacture and a stock of components.

Hence you stock things like copper wire.....

 

[Effendi]

Exactly. The system of JEJIT works perfectly well. Right up until the point things go Mammary Glands Vertical, and the average law abiding, civilised person is trying to beat their neighbour's head into a canoe because they grabbed the last two-pack of bog roll.

But that doesn't happen very often. Pandemics on the scale of COVID tend to be a once in a generation thing, and the Big Four are not going to spend huge amounts of money storing food they almost certainly won't need and can't sell.

The 5 day issue was presented to parliament, must be around 15 years ago now, they listened politely and did nothing. I think it was even some time after that they sold off the national emergency grain holdings.

The only realistic solution for individuals is to have a holding of consumables at home and to be constantly using and topping up the holding to keep stuff within date.

 

[delivering_capability]

I was quite impressed how the food supply chain did during Covid. Despite lunatics hoarding bog roll and tinned tomatoes, things were only disrupted for a couple of days.

A few ideas from me:

1. Improve our defences against disinformation. Years of cr@p on social media has eroded our national resolve, adherence to rules and I'm sure will reduce uptake of the vaccine. This will cost UK PLC billions of pounds. You could see the end game last week on Capitol Hill. I am still not sure we are taking this seriously enough.

2. Resilience costs money. We need to spend it. I am sure if we had followed through on some of the pre-COVID wargames we would have spend more money on preparing the NHS and associated supply chains. For example not being able to manufacture a vaccine here pre COVID was a huge oversight. The NHS have done a great job but it was an organization prepared for the wrong tasks. The vast majority of it is used to treating Marjories Type 2 diabetes and Tom's obesity not acute viral infections.

3. Double down on organised crime and dark money. These effectively impose a tax on the rest of society at great cost to us.

4. We were more susceptible to COVID as the country's feckless residents probably like a pint of full fat coke and a Maccy Ds a bit too much. Obesity and general chronic ill health in the population has cost us billions of pounds and will slow down the recovery from the pandemic. We need a concerted effort on healthy living but this is politically a non starter.

 

[Werewolf]

The 5 day issue was presented to parliament, must be around 15 years ago now, they listened politely and did nothing. I think it was even some time after that they sold off the national emergency grain holdings.

The only realistic solution for individuals is to have a holding of consumables at home and to be constantly using and topping up the holding to keep stuff within date.

Agreed. I started stockpiling long-life food last year. I regularly check the dates to make sure they are still in code.

Worst case scenario, I could last at least a week and a half without resupply.

 

[ericferret]

Agreed. I started stockpiling long-life food last year. I regularly check the dates to make sure they are still in code.

Worst case scenario, I could last at least a week and a half without resupply.

Friend of mine while in the navy in the 60's on a run ashore came across a load of corned beef about 50 years old. So they cracked a can. In perfect condition. However it had been in the worlds biggest deep freeze.
Left at Scotts Antartica base. I suppose if it had a B.B.E date they wouldn't have touched it!!!

 

[ericferret]

View attachment 538989

Cheese Gromit, but it's not Wensleydale!!!

Just noticed the two live mouse traps over the top of the cheese mountain, probably redundant in this case.

 

[Egg on Leggs]

Being truly resilient as a nation would meant no more Blairs, or Camerons. No more sofa decision making with no records kept, as opposed to properly conducted meetings with minutes kept. No more rash decision making with any form of PCDA - Plan/Do/Check/Act. No more basing decisions on assumptions, without documenting and testing those assumptions.

Resilience does not work in a short termism capitalist society.

 

[pimpernel]

View attachment 538989

Cheese Gromit, but it's not Wensleydale!!!

Your knackered trying to get into the freezer, they must weigh a ton - well not literally.
Incidentally are you using them for home schooling, lovely shapes your creating!

 

[ericferret]

Your knackered trying to get into the freezer, they must weigh a ton - well not literally.
Incidentally are you using them for home schooling, lovely shapes your creating!

Usually smoke it (as in kippers not canabis). Bought it as out of date stock 15p a can. Usually about £1.80.
Very similar to the old compo ration "cheese possessed".
I only try to get into the freezer when pissed so they are a safety device.

 

[Mattb]

Resilience does not work in a short termism capitalist society.

It also doesn’t work terribly well with fresh food.

 

[Danny_Dravot]

@Effendi 's excellent post on page one (I apologise, I haven't read the remainder) pretty much nailed it. In short, without a radical overhaul we are truly fucked.

Identity politics dominates political agendas. There is no national strategy, but a series of political sprints.

Much can be attributed to 14% (unsustainable) population growth and the unmitigated disaster of mass immigration over the past 2 decades. I doubt anybody has the political will to address that elephant in the room.

I have genuinely been looking at other places to retire to. Remote Western Ireland, Crete and Switzerland are currently looking good.

 

[Danny_Dravot]

Oh, and another thing....it seems that the opinions of working class people, those that actually work and pay taxes, appear to have been rebranded as populism and are therefore bad. MSM and now most social media...bunch of cvnts.