Based on a Nightmare Scenario
Breakdown is inspired by a hypothetical nightmare scenario envisioned by Elliott Wallace, CTO and Co-Founder of ITB Fulfillment. It captures the fear of system failure during critical shopping events like Black Friday. In the film, a 3PL company, similar to ITB Fulfillment, spends months preparing for the busiest shopping period, only to face a catastrophic system collapse at the worst moment. Elliott describes this as every 3PL’s nightmare—preparing for extreme order volumes, only to see the systems, particularly APIs connecting them to shipping partners, fail completely. The film illustrates how the company’s ability to fulfill orders is crippled, leading to a backlog and frustrated customers. Both the story and Elliott's experience stress the importance of having reliable systems and backups. As the crisis unfolds, it shows how a single point of failure can cause chaos during peak periods, turning months of preparation into disaster. Elliott’s warning about the impact of such failures is mirrored in the film, highlighting the need for robust systems to avoid catastrophic consequences, even when a company is fully prepared for high-volume events.
