The supply chain is no stranger to disruption. We are used to handling events that challenge our ability to supply products or services to our valued customers.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, transportation failure, or the business cycle, have all tested the supply chain. The global reach of modern supply chains means there is always something to contend with somewhere.
In short, there has never been a period of uneventful normality for the supply chain.
No such thing as normal
Although ‘normal’ is a stranger to the supply chain, the last three years feel different. Disruption appears to have intensified.
Geopolitical tension and trade tariffs test the supply chain in novel ways. In the past, our profession would closely monitor traditional news sources to anticipate disruption, but that has changed. Instant communication over digital platforms means we pivot on information before it hits ‘regular’ news channels. The supply chain now reacts to Tweets from elected officials that could disrupt the movement of goods across borders. Everything is amplified now.
The new resiliency
The current peak of the last three years is COVID-19. Health risk is the global vector for disruption. That feels new. If each prior disruption was an opportunity to test and build supply chain resiliency, our new, amplified level of disruption requires new resiliency.
In my 35 years in and around supply chain, I have never seen a challenge as big as ensuring manufacturing and logistics continue to function during a global pandemic. In the past, a global supply chain could weather disruptions by moving activity to another manufacturing facility. Not so easy to do when the new disruption impacts all your resources and capacity.
The supply chain is a learning organism
The parts of a well-managed supply chain, when added together, result in something greater than the sum of its components. As outside pressure grows, the supply chain acts like an organism that learns and adapts.
Pressure from the pandemic increased the intelligence of our global supply chain. An example of this is how we redefined the way our logistics operations respond to sudden disruption.
Before COVID-19, those of us who monitor and manage the supply chain thought we all had to be in the same office as our colleagues. We discovered that was not the case during lockdown. Innovations from our technology partners and the openness of our culture to embrace new ways to work have enabled us to adapt and run our supply chain while working remotely. We are no longer in the same room, but video collaboration is the next best thing.
What about manufacturing hardware though? That cannot be done remotely. Assembling your solution for your client while social distancing is a paradox. It requires out of the box thinking. Simply placing manufacturing on hold is not an option, especially when your clients are the ones on the frontlines fighting the pandemic.
Necessity built new expertise. In only two months, members of our global team designed and delivered a way to support the safety of our manufacturing teams. They created a smartphone application to monitor the health of each person on the manufacturing line. After answering a few simple questions, the app regularly updates a database and works with our HR and medical teams to determine at the end of each day if you need to quarantine yourself or if you should present yourself for a COVID-19 test.
Think of it as contact tracing, but for manufacturing. Used in conjunction with personal protective equipment (PPE), this innovation is unique to our supply chain. It has helped our people tremendously.
Our collective experience in continuing to safely manufacture during a pandemic led to our engineering team authoring a whitepaper to mitigate that challenge and provide a safe environment for our employees. We worked alongside local governments and health agencies to develop a white paper of best practices and eventually presented it for verification and approval. I am pleased to share our supply chain was identified as a leading example of how to respond to a pandemic while protecting the health of our workers.
Thank you to my team for these accomplishments. Your hard work and can-do attitude have helped us through a challenging time.
To all my supply chain colleagues: The world feels different now but have courage. New disruption inspires innovation which builds new supply chain resiliency.
About the Author
Renee Ure is Lenovo’s Vice President of Global Supply Chain. She leads a Global Team responsible for effective Planning, Procurement, Fulfillment, Operations, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Engineering for the Data Center Group (DCG). Start a conversation with Renee here, on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
