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Q1: Why does the WSJ feature an article about the furniture manufacturer Simply Amish? What is the point of it?

The WSJ publishes an article about the furniture manufacturer, Simply Amish, since it is a unique company that is experiencing supply chain problems. This seems to be detrimental to the company as some of the components that are utilized to manufacture the furniture are imported and that material is disrupted by the gobal supply chain and as a result this is pushing the lead time of the Simply Amish delivery by couple of months hence affecting the company profits. The whole point of featuring this in the article is to showcase the challenges that a company which is rich is producing material that are locally sourced is being affected by the global supply chain and gives an idea that domestic operations nowadays rely on overseas materials.

Q2: Why is furniture manufacturer Simply Amish struggling with its supply chain? Why is it not totally vertically integrated?

The supply chain for the furniture manufacturer Simply Amish is facing issues, according to the article "Global Supply Chain Woes Reach America's Amish Furniture Makers." Simply Amish suffers from partial vertical integration, which is detrimental to the company. The company is vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions since some of its raw materials are obtained from other companies. Simply Amish is experiencing difficulties as a result of its inability to timely and reliably source the raw materials it needs. The company has encountered significant delays in getting wood shipments, and occasionally the quality of the wood has been below grade. As a result, Simply Amish's furniture production was delayed, and the company was forced to cancel many orders or delay them. Furthermore, the article claims that because of their reliance on others, Simply Amish is subject to the same global supply-chain challenges that have recently had an effect on many other businesses. The article also goes on to point out that materials such as lumber are traded on a global market, so price fluctuations around the workshops to obtain the raw material neccessary to produce the product due to the fact that traders would hold on to wood in order to prevent their loss hence strain the supply. As indicated its not totally vertical intergrated due to have some supplier for components like knobs/Fabric/Hardware from countries in Asia.

Q3: What can Simply Amish do in the longer term? Should Simply Amish begin cutting down trees? If not, how can Simply Amish extricate itself from global supply-chain strains? Is that even possible?

In order to avoid any calamities to their business, the Simply Amish needs to find a way to escape the pressures of global supply chain. They cannot be continously be susceptible to supply chain disruption every year. Therefore there are multiple avenues that the company can take to rectifiy this shoratage in supply chain. One solution and more immediate is to procure the raw material within the local means of the company. That means cutting down tress which can be controversial environmentally. However if done proper by following the guideline and with environmental impact measures/solutions it can solve the company's problem of shortages in the supply chain. Another possible way for Simply Amish to extricate itself from global supply chain strains is to look for alternative suppliers. They need to robust their supply chain in a way where distrubation cannot be a problem all the time. Therefore, they can look for suppliers that are more local rather than looking for suppliers that are on a different continent. This would enable Simiply Amish to aquire raw material more reliably and promptly. However, as indicated in the article no company is immune to the global distrubtion in this era.