Government Supply Chains, Manufacturing and Procurement Concerns in the Wake of COVID-19

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to expose weaknesses and vulnerabilities in domestic supply chain risk management across the world. Particularly, in the United States, it has captured the attention of the recently inaugurated President and the Legislature. President Biden has issued two executive orders since he was sworn in that are directly related to supply chain management concerns; Executive Order 14017, America’s Supply Chains, and Executive Order 14005, Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America's Workers, were signed on 24 Feb 2021 and 25 Jan 2021, respectively. Both make it very clear that supply chain management is at the top of the administration’s priority list. Both also make it clear that there is a deep need for research into particular areas of supply chain risk management and analysis, for which Logistics’ authors are particularly well-suited.

Executive Order 14017 is specifically aimed at increasing supply chain resilience utilizing more secure and diverse means. This E.O. calls for near- and long-term research and reporting into a wide variety of service and supply markets. The order calls for a review of supply chains by all executive agencies and focuses specifically on a 100-day review and report on semiconductors; advanced packaging; high-capacity batteries, including electric-vehicle batteries; critical minerals; and other identified strategic materials, including rare-earth elements, pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. It further calls for an annual review and report on the defense industrial base; public health and biological preparedness industrial base; the industrial base for the development of information and communications technology, data and associated services; the energy sector industrial base; and the transportation industrial base, and a report on supply chains for the production of agricultural commodities and food products.

Executive Order 14005 is specifically concerned with monitoring and managing domestic procurement within critical supply chain areas subject to the Buy American Act of 1933, its amendments and the various trade agreements that affect its impact. This E.O. is focused on increasing the percentage of domestically sourced goods and services purchased by federal buying agencies within the United States and determining the optimal means by which such a program should be managed.

This Special Issue seeks to contribute to the discussion surrounding increasing domestic supply chain resilience and potentially assist in informing domestic supply chain policy. Authors are cordially invited to submit original research papers, review articles, empirical studies, and case studies (for teaching and training) for this Special Issue of Logistics until 31 October 2021. Manuscripts or papers can be submitted on any topic related to the areas of focus for the executive orders, and may include the following topics:

• Studies related to novel approaches for increasing domestic supply chain resilience;
• Novel contractual or sourcing methods related to increasing domestic supply chain resilience;
• Robust assessments of the manufacturing or other needed capacities of the United States, including the ability to modernize to meet future needs;
• Robust studies of domestic manufacturing capabilities, including nonexistent, extinct, threatened or single-point-of-failure capabilities;
• Methods for determining the locations of key manufacturing and production assets, with techniques for identifying any significant risks posed by the assets’ physical locations;
• Methods for determining and managing exclusive or dominant supplies of critical goods and materials and other essential goods and materials by or through nations that are, or are likely to become, unfriendly or unstable;
• Methods for determining the availability of substitutes or alternative sources for critical goods and materials and other essential goods and materials;
• Studies related to current domestic education and manufacturing workforce skills for relevant sectors and identified gaps, opportunities, and potential best practices for meeting the future workforce needs for relevant sectors;
• Studies related to the need for research and development capacity to sustain leadership in the development of critical goods and materials and other essential goods and materials;
• Studies related to the role of transportation systems in supporting existing supply chains and the risks associated with those transportation systems;
• Studies regarding the risks posed by climate change for the availability, production or transportation of critical goods and materials and other essential goods and materials.

This list is not exhaustive. Other articles in the field of public sector supply chain management and procurement are highly welcome. I look forward to your submissions.

Dr. Daniel Joseph Finkenstadt
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Logistics is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• public procurement law
• supply chain management
• supply chain risk
• supply chain resilience
• domestic preference