Are you resilient?

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the November 2022 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

November 2022

Are you resilient? It’s not an idle question. If there’s one word that I’ve heard at every supply chain event I’ve attended this year, its resilience. It is, of course, in response to the last few years in supply chain management. I think its fair to say that supply chains have been knocked to the canvas more times than Rocky. What has become clear as we do our post-pandemic reviews is that the firms that demonstrated the ability to get up off the canvas and keep punching were those that invested in resiliency before the pandemic—even if they didn’t use that term.

Browse this issue archive.

Already a subscriber? Access full edition now.

Need Help?

Contact customer service

847-559-7581   More options

Not a subscriber? Start your magazine subscription.

Are you resilient? It’s not an idle question. If there’s one word that I’ve heard at every supply chain event I’ve attended this year, its resilience. It is, of course, in response to the last few years in supply chain management. I think its fair to say that supply chains have been knocked to the canvas more times than Rocky. What has become clear as we do our post-pandemic reviews is that the firms that demonstrated the ability to get up off the canvas and keep punching were those that invested in resiliency before the
pandemic—even if they didn’t use that term.

For example, I recently visited with Medline’s supply chain team at their new 1.5 million state of-the-art distribution center. One of the things I found most interesting was that the team touted the $500 million investment they had made in added inventory to ensure that they can service their healthcare customers. They’re now carrying around $4 billion in stock across the network. When it looked like we were on the brink of a rail strike, Medline was able to assure is healthcare customers that the inventory they need to care for patients was already on the warehouse shelves.

What’s also clear is that resilience doesn’t just happen. It’s an investment in people, process and technology, and a best practice that has to be exercised in order to be ready when the next disruption—whatever that might be—happens. For instance, Len DeCandia, J&J’s CPO, recently told me that we have all invested heavily in customer relationship management to the detriment of supplier relationship management.

SC
MR