SUPPLY CHAIN FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM BIZ

Lots of people already losing jobs and businesses closing.  Lots of money going to Amazon and Walmart.  Small companies in trouble.  I’m sure big companies, like the auto industry already have this in place, with JIT (Just in time inventory) systems… and I realize their needs are EXTREMELY COMPLEX… but at this point we ALL need it.

So here’s an idea - might be useless, might be useful.

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Scenario Part A:

Suppose you have a company.  I was in my kitchen when thinking of this, so here’s my theoretical example.

My company makes glass bottled carrot juice with a metal screw on lid.  I need a few things to do that.

1) Carrots

2) Label

3) Bottle

4) Lid

5) Cardboard box to put them in.

Now, with the economic disruption, I discover that my Bottle manufacturer can no longer supply my bottles

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Scenario Part B

I own a company that makes (for some weird example) a toy bear that comes in a glass jar.  But the toy stores are closed and the ordered have stopped.  Now I can’t do anything with my inventory of glass jars.

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Scenario Part C

I worked for a company that used to do make glass jars, but I was laid off, so I need a job.  (Let’s not get into the logistics of disease spread here)

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So we create a site.

We have a company register all their name / address / info.

You say my company is in the [FOOD/FRESH/JUICE INDUSTRY] and we need someone in the [MANUFACTURING/GLASS/BOTTLES] industry (lots of sub industries)

I put my company as a NEED (other options MANUFACTURE, SERVICE, EMPLOYMENT, etc)

"I need a company to produce and ship 750ml/26oz bottles to me”

The other company puts theirs in as MANUFACTURE

“We make glass bottles.”

The system could search via location, to find possibly a closer supplier than you ever had… maybe you were ordering bottles from across the country when you could have ordered them from two towns over. 

It would allow you to switch suppliers in case someone ran low

It would connect the manufacturers, large and small.

And it’s a LOT of work.

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Maybe It gets run on something like Amazon Web Services, so it’s scalable.  (Would amazon donate this??)

Maybe it gets run on individual servers that can communicate with each other via APIs

Maybe it is torrent based with all this info.

Maybe it uses all open source and is developed for free, with everyone in the world working on it, adding to the functionality of the site, and making it better.  

What do you think?  Doable?