Parallels between commercial and illegal supply chains

I just finished reading the recent book by Fredrick Forsyth. Usually his books are well researched and gripping - well some were very gripping. This book was about a fictional war against the illegal substances. The protagonist accomplishes this by destroying the supply routes of the smugglers. That's when the distribution and logistics challenges and similarities with supply chains of global businesses became apparent.

Businesses strive to maintain deep visibility into their supply chains to guarantee availability and still have the lowest inventory levels possible. The smugglers never promise the exact date but demand sticking to exact procedures when the delivery is made.
They insist on product transfer with no delay under strict quality controls with dangerous consequences for quality mismatch. Quality sampling is conducted at every stage of transfer of materials.
Hmmm - businesses face no such dangers in delays of product transfers but incur costs and losses that ought to be avoided.

Payment terms are very tough by commercial standards - suppliers insist on COD for low volumes and 50% deposit for trusted distributors with the rest upon delivery.


Freight losses or lost-in-transit due to intervention by law enforcement agencies is apparently acceptable at 10-20%. It is unacceptable for regular commerce to have that kind of trans-shipment or distribution losses.

Supply chain managers of pharma and food products face far more regulatory oversight to prevent contamination or dilution of the product. All supply chain managers struggle to contain costs or keep them flat for increasing volumes.
They should make a study of the efficiencies of these smugglers - at least for the insight into what motivates each link in the supply chain to stick to their delivery schedules or provide updates on material movement.

None of these guys know of EDI but they seem to do a better job at moving their stuff. Their information networks are very tightly coupled, with no paper work to track the movement of product, yet very efficient.
Note: This is written in jest and random musings upon reading a new book of fiction.