The architecture of modern global supply chains tells an interesting story. They weren't built overnight—they emerged during an era when economic cycles seemed predictable, geopolitical tensions were relatively contained, and prosperity appeared to be spreading across borders. Companies at that time saw an opportunity: why concentrate production in one place when you could fragment it? They carved manufacturing into discrete stages and distributed them across continents, chasing cost efficiency and resource advantages. It made sense then. Raw materials from one region, components from another, assembly elsewhere. The interconnected supply web became the competitive edge. But here's the thing worth pondering: those networks were architected for a world that no longer exists. Today's volatility—trade friction, supply shocks, geopolitical realignments—keeps testing whether that mid-20th-century logic still holds.