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Monday, October 25, 2021
The Color Blue Is the Latest Victim of the Supply Chain Crisis
www.businessinsider.com: Manufacturers are running out of supplies needed to make shades of blue paint, the latest good to be affected in the ongoing supply chain crisis.
I had no idea that we had supply chain issues with paint in additional to everything else. I also didn’t know that each color of paint takes 50-60 different ingredients. With that information, it makes sense that there would be shortages. I don’t think that this article says anything about why the color blue is a significant shortage. I guess the specific resources for that color have a more significant shortage? Based on the numbers that they gave, it seems like the color blue is not the only concern though. It is interesting because I heard a show came in over budget for paints at CMU, which never happens. Thinking about the lumber situation, in addition to paint, I can’t imagine trying to build a new home right now. Or even buying a previously made one for that matter because the shortage of new ones being built. I have heard crazy stories about home buying right now.
What is interesting in this article is that demand for these paints is going up. Based on speculation that may be because of an increase in domestic demand because of at home DIYs or honestly just the boredom of home. Another reason may be because of an increase in the recreational side of painting as people pick up more hobbies. What will be even more intriguing will be how the industries that rely on paint colors will adjust to this. Blue is so essential to art (probably another reason why it is out of stock) because it is a primary color that can be easily used to cool down a color. Also, because it is a primary color, there is no other way to recreate that look except with essential additives and pigments. What may be promising is that currently, scientists are working on new blues (I believe they actually discovered an entirely new one) and this may lead to an influx of a new pigment as a reliable resource.
Honestly, this article frightens me. It frightens me because it makes me think of the way that one day our modern system of manufacturing and shipping will one day fall apart and fail, plunging us back into an age when communication is limited to as far as you can shout or a letter can fly on the back of a horse. The effect that the pandemic had on shipping speeds and availability is only the beginning. As climate change worsens and materials become more rare the glory we know as next day or same day shipping will disappear and so will the extensive catalogues on every shopping site. Although these things are not necessities, their lack will be felt across the states and especially in the theater industry that has come to be used to the ability to get whatever material they need in time for the show, which will one day not be possible. I have no doubt that theater will still be alive at that point, but how will it change? Will it be better for the environment? Will shows be locally sourced?
It’s a little confusing why these shortages are happening, it looks like it is a combination of a lot of factors but the ripple effect of COVID on supply chains has gone on longer and further than I ever thought it would. Whenever these types of articles mention a “shortage of workers” I wish they would include how much the company is paying new employees; after going through COVID, a lot of workers now see how valuable they are and are not willing anymore to work for less than a proper living wage, and if these companies aren’t willing to do this as well as train new employees, they are going to continue having this issue. It is also interesting that the article only mentions blue paint. Does this issue affect purple and green paint as well? With the color of the year being Avocado (as we all know), this could have dire consequences for those of us who stay on-trend with our accent walls.
As humans, we are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot when using resources. This is something that has always been a problem for us but is only now becoming more apparent because of the commonality of the items that are becoming, for lack of a better term-- extinct. A sweatshirt I wanted to buy a few months ago was out of stock because of a mixture of the limited quantity of dye due to its scarcity in addition to COVID restrictions. At first, I was upset by this but now I realize that I have a privilege to even have access to these resources in the first place. In this article, ingredients for paint were addressed but this is a much larger issue. Eventually, we will run out of things like oil, steel (if not recycled), sand, or more threatening, things that we need to survive like food. The human race needs to start addressing how we are abusing resources otherwise we will have to begin to worry about things a little more serious than paint.
Blue is my favorite color, I don’t know why but I’ve always loved the color since I was little. For those that know me I usually always am wearing at least one garment with blue in it, which is why this article made me so sad to hear that there is now a short supply of blue color. I also truly never new that most color paints take roughly 50-60 ingredients, for whatever reason I assumed all paint needed was pigment, solvent, and binder but clearly there is much more to paint then I expected. Interestingly, with this article the reason for this shortage isn’t mentioned. With all that said, I still wonder what about the Covid-19 Pandemic is slowing down the supply chain of blue paint. I know that certain blue pigments such as Lapis Lazuli blue can be incredibly rare and expensive, but I thought other blue colors where relatively easy and cheap to produce. The increase in demand for blue paint also intrigued me. Is this directly because of the pandemic or just a coincidence? Maybe, because more people are at home there is more demand for blue paint for craft projects? Either way the dramatic lack of supplies that has been caused by the pandemic has been more than worrying, and I hope that things are capable of going back to normal soon enough.
This title seems comically dramatic, but I suppose it's a legitimate concern. It does seem like there's issues in supply chain related to many industries. Countless online orders are on backorder, and people's shopping habits seemed to change during the pandemic, such as switching to purchasing a lot more things online for delivery. (I know people who has online shopping sprees because they got bored during quarantine...ugh). When we talk in TD1 about how materials prices won't become consistent for another two or so years, it seems wild, but it makes sense that stabilization requires a lot of factors to become more consistent. I wonder how much of a dent of this we'll see in the scale of theatrical productions, because it honestly feels like the sets are just as ambitious as before. And theatres probably want to reopen in full swing. Also, who knew blue paint has so many ingredients??
Interesting. I had no idea the industry experienced a supply shortage in relation to painting, yet now that it has been pointed out to me (with the article), it just makes sense. For one, it is interesting to think this is an issue with blue pigmentations. After all, blue is one of the three primary colors– foundational in the creation of the rest of the color pallet. On that same note, I find it interesting to know this shortage in supply/increase in demand was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Which again, similarly to my ignorance regarding colors as finite resources, makes sense once it has been pointed out. However, it is shocking to hear experts predict the shortage to extend beyond 2021. With estimates suggesting it will go all throughout 2023. Especially when we consider how fast the issue was caused in the first place. I mean, the pandemic lasted only 9-ish months and its effects/consequences seem to have most definitely outlived it.
As others have pointed out, it is frightening how fragile our current supply chain is. Something that we often take for granted in this country in a modern era are the abilities to have exactly what we want right now. Blue has historically been a color of luxury, and even with synthetic manufacturing it is still expensive. I feel like the more concrete materials like wood and steel are easier to understand when it comes to their historically high prices, but I'd be curious to see if that same understanding would translate as easily over into the paints world. In some ways, it is good to see that this doesn't appear to be a permanent issue, and many hope that these disruption will subsite by 2023, however it is still worrying for the near future. However, maybe this will force us to rethink our process when it comes to more valuable materials, ultimately pushing us towards a more sustainable system.
I think this shortage of blue paint may tie with the boba shortage as being the most confusing shortages to come out of the pandemic. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that people were renovating their houses at an extraordinary rate in 2020, and the Pantone color of the year in 2020 was blue, but it appears this shortage has only recently occurred. When we went into lockdown, I honestly never anticipated the breakdown of seemingly unrelated supply chains. I also never thought about how long it would take to for them to recover. I wonder if some industries will capitalize off of this issue and continue to keep supply at least a bit behind demand to inflate profits. During WWII, the U.S. put war profiteering legislation into practice to prevent this, but none of us really thought about how that might be repeated during a pandemic.
10 comments:
I had no idea that we had supply chain issues with paint in additional to everything else. I also didn’t know that each color of paint takes 50-60 different ingredients. With that information, it makes sense that there would be shortages. I don’t think that this article says anything about why the color blue is a significant shortage. I guess the specific resources for that color have a more significant shortage? Based on the numbers that they gave, it seems like the color blue is not the only concern though. It is interesting because I heard a show came in over budget for paints at CMU, which never happens. Thinking about the lumber situation, in addition to paint, I can’t imagine trying to build a new home right now. Or even buying a previously made one for that matter because the shortage of new ones being built. I have heard crazy stories about home buying right now.
What is interesting in this article is that demand for these paints is going up. Based on speculation that may be because of an increase in domestic demand because of at home DIYs or honestly just the boredom of home. Another reason may be because of an increase in the recreational side of painting as people pick up more hobbies. What will be even more intriguing will be how the industries that rely on paint colors will adjust to this. Blue is so essential to art (probably another reason why it is out of stock) because it is a primary color that can be easily used to cool down a color. Also, because it is a primary color, there is no other way to recreate that look except with essential additives and pigments. What may be promising is that currently, scientists are working on new blues (I believe they actually discovered an entirely new one) and this may lead to an influx of a new pigment as a reliable resource.
Honestly, this article frightens me. It frightens me because it makes me think of the way that one day our modern system of manufacturing and shipping will one day fall apart and fail, plunging us back into an age when communication is limited to as far as you can shout or a letter can fly on the back of a horse. The effect that the pandemic had on shipping speeds and availability is only the beginning. As climate change worsens and materials become more rare the glory we know as next day or same day shipping will disappear and so will the extensive catalogues on every shopping site. Although these things are not necessities, their lack will be felt across the states and especially in the theater industry that has come to be used to the ability to get whatever material they need in time for the show, which will one day not be possible. I have no doubt that theater will still be alive at that point, but how will it change? Will it be better for the environment? Will shows be locally sourced?
It’s a little confusing why these shortages are happening, it looks like it is a combination of a lot of factors but the ripple effect of COVID on supply chains has gone on longer and further than I ever thought it would. Whenever these types of articles mention a “shortage of workers” I wish they would include how much the company is paying new employees; after going through COVID, a lot of workers now see how valuable they are and are not willing anymore to work for less than a proper living wage, and if these companies aren’t willing to do this as well as train new employees, they are going to continue having this issue. It is also interesting that the article only mentions blue paint. Does this issue affect purple and green paint as well? With the color of the year being Avocado (as we all know), this could have dire consequences for those of us who stay on-trend with our accent walls.
As humans, we are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot when using resources. This is something that has always been a problem for us but is only now becoming more apparent because of the commonality of the items that are becoming, for lack of a better term-- extinct. A sweatshirt I wanted to buy a few months ago was out of stock because of a mixture of the limited quantity of dye due to its scarcity in addition to COVID restrictions. At first, I was upset by this but now I realize that I have a privilege to even have access to these resources in the first place. In this article, ingredients for paint were addressed but this is a much larger issue. Eventually, we will run out of things like oil, steel (if not recycled), sand, or more threatening, things that we need to survive like food. The human race needs to start addressing how we are abusing resources otherwise we will have to begin to worry about things a little more serious than paint.
Blue is my favorite color, I don’t know why but I’ve always loved the color since I was little. For those that know me I usually always am wearing at least one garment with blue in it, which is why this article made me so sad to hear that there is now a short supply of blue color. I also truly never new that most color paints take roughly 50-60 ingredients, for whatever reason I assumed all paint needed was pigment, solvent, and binder but clearly there is much more to paint then I expected. Interestingly, with this article the reason for this shortage isn’t mentioned. With all that said, I still wonder what about the Covid-19 Pandemic is slowing down the supply chain of blue paint. I know that certain blue pigments such as Lapis Lazuli blue can be incredibly rare and expensive, but I thought other blue colors where relatively easy and cheap to produce. The increase in demand for blue paint also intrigued me. Is this directly because of the pandemic or just a coincidence? Maybe, because more people are at home there is more demand for blue paint for craft projects? Either way the dramatic lack of supplies that has been caused by the pandemic has been more than worrying, and I hope that things are capable of going back to normal soon enough.
This title seems comically dramatic, but I suppose it's a legitimate concern. It does seem like there's issues in supply chain related to many industries. Countless online orders are on backorder, and people's shopping habits seemed to change during the pandemic, such as switching to purchasing a lot more things online for delivery. (I know people who has online shopping sprees because they got bored during quarantine...ugh). When we talk in TD1 about how materials prices won't become consistent for another two or so years, it seems wild, but it makes sense that stabilization requires a lot of factors to become more consistent. I wonder how much of a dent of this we'll see in the scale of theatrical productions, because it honestly feels like the sets are just as ambitious as before. And theatres probably want to reopen in full swing. Also, who knew blue paint has so many ingredients??
Interesting. I had no idea the industry experienced a supply shortage in relation to painting, yet now that it has been pointed out to me (with the article), it just makes sense. For one, it is interesting to think this is an issue with blue pigmentations. After all, blue is one of the three primary colors– foundational in the creation of the rest of the color pallet. On that same note, I find it interesting to know this shortage in supply/increase in demand was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Which again, similarly to my ignorance regarding colors as finite resources, makes sense once it has been pointed out. However, it is shocking to hear experts predict the shortage to extend beyond 2021. With estimates suggesting it will go all throughout 2023. Especially when we consider how fast the issue was caused in the first place. I mean, the pandemic lasted only 9-ish months and its effects/consequences seem to have most definitely outlived it.
As others have pointed out, it is frightening how fragile our current supply chain is. Something that we often take for granted in this country in a modern era are the abilities to have exactly what we want right now. Blue has historically been a color of luxury, and even with synthetic manufacturing it is still expensive. I feel like the more concrete materials like wood and steel are easier to understand when it comes to their historically high prices, but I'd be curious to see if that same understanding would translate as easily over into the paints world. In some ways, it is good to see that this doesn't appear to be a permanent issue, and many hope that these disruption will subsite by 2023, however it is still worrying for the near future. However, maybe this will force us to rethink our process when it comes to more valuable materials, ultimately pushing us towards a more sustainable system.
I think this shortage of blue paint may tie with the boba shortage as being the most confusing shortages to come out of the pandemic. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that people were renovating their houses at an extraordinary rate in 2020, and the Pantone color of the year in 2020 was blue, but it appears this shortage has only recently occurred. When we went into lockdown, I honestly never anticipated the breakdown of seemingly unrelated supply chains. I also never thought about how long it would take to for them to recover. I wonder if some industries will capitalize off of this issue and continue to keep supply at least a bit behind demand to inflate profits. During WWII, the U.S. put war profiteering legislation into practice to prevent this, but none of us really thought about how that might be repeated during a pandemic.
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