In Richard Koch’s 1998 book, The 80/20 Principle, he makes a rather stark statement reflecting on the events of today. “The tipping point is ‘the point at which an ordinary and stable phenomenon – such as a low-level flu outbreak – can turn into a public-health crisis’, because of the number of people who are infected and can therefore infect others. Since the behavior of epidemics is non-linear and they don’t behave in the way we expect, ‘small changes – like bringing the number of new infections down – can have huge effects…  It all depends when and how the changes are made.”

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” — William Arthur Ward. 

Maintaining adequate cash flow is a major factor when operating a healthy business in times of growth and prosperity. During tough times it takes on an amplified role. The fundamentals of collecting on receivables, reducing expenses, reducing inventory investment, and the like are still in play, but these and different strategies need to be examined in difficult economic times.

Like most manufacturers across the country, Illinois manufacturers are answering the call of duty to help front-line COVID-19 warriors. Many are doing this by either pivoting their operations to produce critical supplies, increasing existing production, or finding other creative ways to contribute to the health and safety of our communities and environment.

Although hard to do, now is the time to start looking toward your company’s future. It is not likely we will go back to the way things were a few months ago. We may not have a clear vision of what the future holds; however, we still need to be proactive in shaping our destiny.

The Defense Production Act may require you to shift production to a different product and therefore you need to rapidly train your team members.  Others may need to reduce their workforce and move team members to other jobs that would require them to learn new skills.  And, some companies are hiring so rapidly that they interview a person, hire them on the spot, and the person is working on the job the same day.  These new team members require to be trained on everything from safety, time keeping, to their actual tasks and everything in between.

In March of 2020 business as we knew it changed, probably forever. The question is, what are we going to do about it? There are several options available; do nothing different, run and hide, or seize this as the opportunity that it is and become better. I recommend the latter. A key to becoming better is to determine how to differentiate your company from your competition.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that came upon us just a few short months ago, now more than ever, manufacturers need to develop and implement an effective business continuity plan if they have not already done so.  While many companies who are ISO9001:2015 registered are required to identify risks and opportunities, as well to develop a response plan and integrate the response into their quality management system; this level of planning is wholly inadequate to support their needs under our current situation.  This is because ISO9001 asks a company to identify “what they will do IF something happens”, but now companies need to have a comprehensive plan to manage the business through the crisis now that it HAS happened.

Part 4 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Expert.

I think we should all take a moment and recognize the extraordinary efforts by everyone involved in healthcare, police and fire departments, emergency responders, research scientists, lab workers, social workers, ANYONE helping feed and shelter the homeless and the entire list of essential employees making a difference.

We are still seeing shortages of PPE and medical equipment, food crops and products with expiring shelf life, stores with empty shelves, and other parts of the supply chain working to make it day to day.

In this new normal, many of us are working from home. Some of us may be old pros and have it all figured out. However, for so many this is brand new. Add to this new home office the fact that you may be sharing it with other people who also have to work from home – roommates, kids, spouses, etc. – and you probably feel pretty unbalanced.

Respiratory Protection Programs are a little more complicated than other aspects of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for many employers.  There are annual requirements for training and review.  Now is a good time to consider the current state of your program and make some goals as needed to maintain and improve.