11.05.2020
By Joseph Sarkis, PhD, Professor at Foisie School of Business, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA and HUMLOG International Research Fellow at Hanken School of Economics, Finland & Gy\u00f6ngyi Kov\u00e1cs, Erkko Professor in Humanitarian Logistics, Hanken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastation to people\u2019s health, safety, and livelihoods. It has also caused our supply chains to be reevaluated. The concerns are pervasive and supply chain fragilities became conspicuous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These concerns have caused supply chain and\nlogistics academics and practitioners to evaluate the situation and provide\ninsights into potential solutions. These\nefforts are early at the writing of this blog and will likely continue for\nyears; with significant uncertainties persevering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We felt an urgent need for sensemaking in\nour supply chain community. But, we could not turn to conferences and face-to-face\nmeetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, a small concerned group of the\ncommunity sponsored an open forum on \u201cAn Action Agenda for Effective\nPost-COVID-19 Supply Chains\u201d a YouTube video recording exists for this event here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With over 500 international registrants and\nabout virtual 300 participants on Zoom and YouTube livestreaming \u2013 the\ndiscussion was lively, concerned, and compelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The session \u2013 moderated by Christine\nHarland<\/a> \u2013 began with three \u2018conversation starters\u2019 including thoughts by Lisa Ellram<\/a>,\nBarbara\nFlynn<\/a>, and Gy\u00f6ngyi\nKov\u00e1cs<\/a>. Discussion commenced amongst the 300 international participants\nwith a variety of perspectives voiced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How supply chains can learn from\nhumanitarian logistics became an important thread of discussion. We highlight\nsome points here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preparedness pays off.<\/em> The more prepared the supply chain \u2013 better trained, with\npre-positioned stock, kits, and collaboration mechanisms \u2013 the quicker and more\ncost-effective it is for pandemic response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n No need to reinvent the \u2013 procurement\nand production \u2013 wheel. <\/em>Medical supply chains are\nhighly regulated. There are set quality expectations, technical specifications,\ndrug lists, and standards even for COVID-19. These characteristics are publicly\navailable on the WHO \u2013 World Health Organization \u2013websites and also regularly\nupdated. Having updated knowledge of these requirements will save significant\nenergy and improve response and resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Package interdependencies. <\/em>Most medical items require supporting materials to be administered.\nMaterials include syringes for vaccines, swabs for tests, and personal\nprotective equipment. In the humanitarian world, inter-agency health kits\nensure that kits follow the same standards and packing lists regardless of\norganisation. Knowing these interdependencies and managing them appropriately\nwith planned kitting can save time and lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Logistics is an essential industry. <\/em>Whether it comes to medical deliveries or groceries in the last\nmile, in a pandemic, the importance of last mile logistics is enhanced. Careful\nplanning can save lives and provide for a better quality of life overall. This\nimportant aspect of logistics as become even more evident and essential given\nthe crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A global pandemic needs a unified global\nresponse. <\/em>Bullwhipping, panic buying, export bans,\ntravel bans, speculative pricing, only induce further disturbances in the\nsupply chain, and typically backfire. Stability and flexibility in policy is\nneeded; if not, then global supply chains require a bit more adaptability to be\nbuilt into the system to attend to these shocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The HUMLOG Institute leads an EU project on\nthe COVID-19 response. For more info, see project HERoS at https:\/\/www.hanken.fi\/en\/departments-and-centres\/department-marketing\/humlog\/research-projects\/ongoing-projects\/health<\/a>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 11.05.2020 By Joseph Sarkis, PhD, Professor at Foisie School of Business, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA and HUMLOG International Research Fellow at Hanken School of Economics, Finland & Gy\u00f6ngyi Kov\u00e1cs, Erkko […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/humlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}