# 2362
While this article, which appeared on Friday in Canadian Transportation & Logistics, serves as a reminder/notification to those in the transportation industry of a symposium called Reposition 2008 to be held Nov 5-7 in Winnipeg, it also reminds the rest of us that the dangers of a pandemic are not limited to catching the virus.
Supply chain issues may sound boring and arcane, but when it is your utility company rationing power for a lack of coal, or your town's grocery store shelves empty due to a lack of rail or truck transport . . . then supply chain issues become very relevant.
In the interest of cost cutting and efficiency, we've virtually eliminated warehousing of goods in this country. We depend instead on JIT (Just In Time) Inventory replacement.
Many experts believe that it is this JIT model that is our society's Achilles Heel during a pandemic crisis.
Our warehouses, as Dr. Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP has pointed out many times, are in the string of container ships stretched across the ocean on their way to America. Once those shipments are slowed, or halted, our store shelves begin to go bare in a hurry.
Of course, a great many of the goods on those ships we could certainly do without, particularly during a crisis.
But a good deal of our food, most of our pharmaceuticals, almost all of our medical consumables (gloves, masks, gowns, IV tubing, etc), and the vast majority of our spare parts for practically anything mechanical or electrical come from overseas these days.
It wouldn't take much of a crimp in our supply lines for it to be felt in every city and state in the nation.
Pandemic Preparedness: Managing a supply chain crisis
WINNIPEG, Man. -- When most people think of a pandemic, they envision an outbreak of infectious disease that rapidly spreads through the population. But a pandemic is not limited to illness.
The word pandemic comes from the Greek word pandemos, which literally translates to "pertaining to all people." Any unexpected large scale event that negatively affects the lives of people all over the world can be considered a pandemic situation. And the workplace is not immune. Due to countless variables beyond your control, a pandemic has the potential to strike where it matters most to the logistics professional.
To the heart of your supply chain.
All pandemics do have a few things in common. First, the consequences have a way of exceeding predicted levels. Secondly, a crisis of any kind will always exploit a company's (or society's) fundamental weaknesses.
Are you prepared?
The supply chain and logistics profession is heavily relied upon during any crisis. Not just to protect their own interests, but to also operate in the best interests of their customers and society as a whole. Further underscoring its crucial role is the fact that a pandemic hits the supply chain and logistics industry on multiple fronts.
Take a moment to consider these factors:
• The people who work in supply chain are as vulnerable to illness or a paralyzed infrastructure (road, air, port, rail) as any other group. Without transportation and logistics, there is no supply chain
• An interrupted supply chain directly impacts your bottom line. No product is being sold and no customers are being served• Now more than ever, supply chains can extend beyond your immediate control to the other side of the globe
• Logistics professionals must have the foresight to devote resources to developing strategies to counter events that may never occur
• There is nobody for a logistics professional to turn for help to repair a supply chain under siege. As the expert, it's up to you.
(Continue . . .)
