Part 7 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Vice President of Supply Chain at Greenleaf Foods.

Whether your industry is “back in the game” or not, we have seen several starts and stops across the overall playing field, especially the food and beverage markets given COVID19 impacts; your supply chain is different!

Part 6 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Vice President of Supply Chain at Greenleaf Foods.

We are starting to see some signs of the economy opening up and supply chains getting some “swings in the cage” before the full season begins.  In many industries, COVID19 demand has stretched the supply chain beyond any reasonable expectations and yet we have found creative ways to make it work.  In other industries, we have been operating with diminished needs and looking for ways to repurpose and pivot to support the health care industry.

No, I am not referring to the classic Johnny Cash song that I often heard my father play in my youth. Although perhaps a few lines of the lyrics are fitting.

No doubt the pandemic crisis and social unrest have shaken many of our companies, our work colleagues, and ourselves to the core. We have had our hands full trying to address challenges amid massive uncertainty. A friend and I were recently lamenting how customer service appears to be at an all-time low. We could cite several examples of carefree and lacking customer service. Seemingly, it is OK to explain away poor service and quality “because of COVID”. Understandably, our companies are challenged to perform. As leaders, we have likely taken our eye off the basics while dealing with the onslaught of uncertainty.

While the way we get the work done has undoubtedly changed, the business environment is just as demanding, competitive, and perhaps even more complicated than it was before the Coronavirus. It’s up to leaders to guide the workforce through these changing times to continue meeting production goals. 

Part 5 of "The New Supply Chain" blog series by Mike Loquercio, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Expert.

As we see the country opening up cautiously and the beginnings of a phased approach to reviving manufacturing, now is not the time to return to the status quo.  We would all agree that manufacturing and the supply chain must be different – and will be different – but are unsure of what our future state might look like.

Given all our concerns with healthcare, social distancing, unemployment, the new workplace with remote learning and our economy, it’s easy to let the focus on supply chain fall to the back of the priority list.

A lot has changed over the past few weeks (I know – I sound like Captain Obvious) and the ripple effects of this crisis are yet to come. We are all entrepreneurs again.

What will your business look like in 3 or 6 months? How about in 2021? How will we prepare our teams and leaders appropriately? The questions go on and on, and while the unknown answers are unnerving, there are some constants that we can lean on for guidance as we work together to create our new norm.

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.”

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.

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.