SUPPLY CHAIN SELF ASSESSMENT

 

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

SELF-ASSESSMENT

 

 

Identify problems with your supply chain strategy and performance. Make sure what you are doing meets what customers want and at a sound cost.

 

 

LTD MANAGEMENT

610.715.3710

ltdmgmt.com

COMPANIES ARE NO LONGER COMPETING AGAINST EACH OTHER.  THEY ARE COMPETING AGAINST SPEED.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce

The pandemic created a new normal.  Things are moving faster.  Do your customers expect more?  Do they want their orders delivered complete, accurate, and on time?  Are you squeezed as to costs?

Do you react to what is happening  Do the reactions mean more firefighting and expediting? 

If this is you, you are not alone.  Many mid-size firms struggle to do supply chain management well. 

The result means supply chain management is about costs, rather than its performance and being a strategic part of your company's growth.  Remember, high supply costs and high inventory levels are both a problem and a symptom of a problem or problems.

How does this happen?  Basically, it is--

1)    You probably don't have a solid supply chain management strategy.

2)    You probably don't know about end-to-end supply chain management and what you can do to get the traction you need.

3)    You probably don't have the tracking/metrics in place to know.

But you can fix this.

 Successful supply chain management start with a plan.  If you are committed to growing your business in this time of disruption and a new reality, this self-assessment is a great first step to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your supply chain.  A starting point.

GET STARTED!

The first step in the assessment to know where you are.  This supply chain assessment will help you to identify problems and holes in your supply chain strategy.  Each question is part of a success supply chain process and plan.

Instructions:

·       Rate each statement on a scale of 1-5.

·       Add up your score at the end.

·       Discuss the results.

 

1.    We are very satisfied with our supply chain costs.

2.    We are satisfied with our freight/transportation costs.

3.    We can clearly define our end-to-end supply chain.

4.    We can explain how our supply chain has competitive advantage and is better than our competitors. 

5.    We have a written supply chain plan that is tied to the strategy of our business and its goals.

6.    We view our supply chain as shipping, receiving, and warehousing.

7.    We are very satisfied with our supply chain performance.

8.    We are very satisfied with our inventory levels and turns.

9.    We measure our inventory turns as a way to metric for supply chain performance.  Inventory includes finished goods, raw materials, components, and other items used in production and sales.

10. We monitor our in-transit materials/inventory.

11. We work continuously to improve our inventory turns.

12. We are never out of stock of materials/inventories.

13. We do not do nor need to do firefighting / expediting.

14. We accept our inventory situation as a cost of doing business.

15. We do not think our supply chain is a pain point.

1.    We measure our customer perfect order performance of delivering orders complete, accurate, and on time.

2.    We work continuously to improve our customer perfect order performance.

3.    We measure our supplier perfect order performance of delivering our purchase orders complete, accurate, and on time.

4.    We are very satisfied overall with our supply chain.

                              TOTAL POINTS: ___________

                               95 POINTS IS MAX SCORE

 

A EXCELLENT.  87-95 POINTS.  You are doing great and have a solid supply chain strategy and program.  While there's always room for improvement, you have a clear understanding of what's working and how to use supply chain management to drive success,

B GOOD.  78-86 POINTS.  You have a good supply chain strategy and program.  You are positioned to grow your business.  However, you should review your score to make improvements to accelerate your growth with supply chain management.

C NEED IMPROVEMENT. 67-77 POINTS.  Your supply chain needs help. While you're doing some things right, you're missing major fundamentals of a good supply chain plan. For consistent success, you should review your low scores and create action plans to improve and expand your supply chain efforts.

D IN DANGER. 57-66 POINTS.  You may be putting your business at risk because you don't have an effective strategy or tactics in place.  At this point, you are just doing stuff.  Meet across the company to start building a strategy and action plan to improve.

F SUPPLY CHAIN FAILURE. 56 POINTS OR LESS.  Your business may be struggling to survive because you don't have the supply chain in place to compete to satisfy customers and to drive growth. You need a top to bottom redo of what you are doing.  Meet with your key people to discuss building a strategy and action plan for improvement.

 

NEED HELP?

Supply chain management has moved front and center to what is expected of businesses.  If you need help improving your supply chain or any part of it, we are here to help!  At LTD Management, we specialize in results driven supply chain management consulting.  When you face tough supply chain challenges, LTD can work with you to understand the realities and to develop the best path for change. 

Supply Chains Are Horizontal and Discrete in Vertical Organizations

Think about it. Supply Chains are a horizontal process in a vertical organization. They flow across the company and extend out--upstream & downstream. Yet because of organization design, Supply Chain Management is discrete. The result is an inherent hindrance of SCM performance.

IMPACT OF CONTAINER LINES ON SUPPLY CHAINS

 

AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE.  This was written a few years ago before the pandemic and everything that has happened with canceled sailing, ship layups, empty containers, and more. all these happenings make this paper relevant.

SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE EROSION
--IMPACT FROM ACTIONS OF CONTAINER LINES--

Supply chains are complex with an evolving landscape of stakeholders and practices. Container lines are important participants that affect supply chains with their operational changes. Today:

• fewer carriers are in business because of mergers and bankruptcies
• alliances, slot exchanges, and vessel sharing among carriers have been created and changed
• shipping routes are often revised
• sailing schedules are made and reworked; and
• “slow steaming” is an ongoing practice.

In addition, carriers have gotten bigger and bigger ships to meet trade growth and to reduce costs. Mega-ships are 18,000+ TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) and rival the size of an aircraft carrier. Port authorities are deciding whether to invest significant monies to handle these vessels. They must be able to quickly berth, unload, load, and get the big ships sailing again to minimize congestion and delays.

SUPPLY CHAINS

Some shippers care only about the rates they pay; companies with leading-edge supply chains know differently. Carrier operations have repercussions. The effects are about more than transport; they are about supply chains.

Performance reliability is important for supply chain effectiveness. Firms create weekly buckets of production/build plans and logistics plans. These are dynamic and critical because they often involve high volume items, seasonal goods, or new products. The plans reflect underlying lead times, which include transit times, from suppliers to factories and from factories to customers and distribution centers.

When container lines change operations, there are corresponding changes to underlying transit times in logistics and build plans. Services that are slower, unreliable, and inconsistent, require companies to go into fire-fighting mode to compensate for problematic service. Significant expediting is used-- a sign of process breakdown--and creates de facto chaos. Products may be flown to keep production lines going or to meet sales needs.

Then there are uncertainties with mega-ships. How will they be filled if supply exceeds demand? What will carriers do to ameliorate under-utilized capacity—and will it affect transit times?

Also, what will be the time factors getting mega-ships into and out of ports? If fewer ports opt-in to handle the ships, what does that do costs and to the time from the port to distribution centers or to end-use customers? All these create scenarios of questionable time consistency. How do supply chain organizations deal with such vagaries for build and delivery plans and to effectively manage supply chains?

Uncertainty creates commercial and operations risks for supply chains. It is a driver for carrying extra inventory to buffer the unknown. Multinationals, with their global scope, are particularly concerned with these events.

To deal with varying transit times, more inventories—more safety stock--are added throughout the production supply chains. Additional working capital is tied up in raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods. This is investment that could be used elsewhere. Such added inventories are an anathema to both supply chain management and lean logistics. The net result is a third group of inventories in the supply chain.

Many items have short shelf lives. Firms in dynamic, volatile businesses, such as fashion, and ones dealing with strong seasonality, such as retailers with Christmas, know the impact of product life cycles. Not having sufficient products timely for peak times creates problems. This, in turn, factors into managing product portfolio complexity and assortment optimization. These are important for both brand and private label items. Supply chain cost and performance have underlying roles to product assortment, sales, and profit results, all of which extend to the individual item level. Bottom line--service consistency/reliability is vital to supply chain results, both financial and operating.

CONCLUSION

Container lines play a vital role in global trade. Yet, carriers have made and are making operational changes that negatively affect the supply chains of their customers. In some ways, ocean carriers and shippers are diverging in what they are doing when the focus is placed on supply chain performance. Shippers need to take tactical actions to counteract carrier actions. More importantly, companies need to develop and implement strategic moves to improve their supply chains.

INTERNATIONAL LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT -- Resilience and Agility

A takeaway from the pandemic has been the upstream supply chain.  Where the supply of supply chains begins.  Where supply chain resilience begins.  The size.  The complexity.  The nonlinearity.  Supply chains within supply chains.  Important to managing it is to remove excess time and therefore remove excess inventory.  

Below is an approach to doing this.  It is not an overnight task.  But the importance cannot be overstated.  As the coronavirus and its supply shocks and demand shocks proved, upstream is critical.  That makes the increased responsiveness and agility very important. 

INTERNATIONAL LEAN LOGISTICS
BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS

Lean and supply chain management has much in common, especially with -

• emphasizing pull, not push, for product flow
• recognizing the two wastes of time and inventory
• highlighting there are two flows-product and information
• elevating the importance of supplier performance on success

Lean logistics, like lean manufacturing, focuses on the four walls of a structure and within a domestic organization. This time the distribution center, instead of a factory. Extending beyond the warehouse, where control is easier and there are fewer, different parties are involved, is limited.

Sometimes these challenges are not addressed or appreciated with lean supply chain management. These include -

• International sourcing-Procuring finished goods or raw materials in China, India, Germany, Brazil and elsewhere outside of North America creates a significant obstacle to lean. The order-to-delivery time is long. Time is a waste, and it compounds the inventory waste issue by making firms buffer and carry more inventory than is needed to compensate for the time. Being lean with a 20-40 day transit time brings a unique test to developing lean SCM
• Accounting-Standard cost accounting and generally accepted accounting do not recognize waste as lean does. Not having financial support to waste and value identification makes lean difficult to implement and sustain. Inventory and time are not regarded as lean does. Inventory is not an asset for lean. Accounting systems do not recognize time. Rework is not treated the same with accounting.
• Organization silos-Supply chain management and lean are processes that cross organization boundaries. Implementing a process that goes horizontal on a vertical and functionally defined organization creates gaps in both processes. These gaps create areas where waste can develop and where removing it can be difficult.

There are many suppliers and many logistics service providers in a supply chain. Some of these are visible; some are less visible. Many suppliers or logistics service firms do not practice lean. Taking lean outside the four walls of the company into other firms brings global complexity into the challenge of implementing and becoming lean.

So the challenge of lean is compounded when it comes to international. Many parties and trade partners are involved which challenges the abilities to remove waste from a supply chain that extends thousands of miles. For example, with an international transaction there are -

*Different groups within the company buying the product who have a role in the movement of information and product

*Different groups within the company selling the product who have a role in the movement of information and product

*Different outside organizations, including:

• Banks
• Trucking company at origin
• Trucking company at destination
• Port at origin
• Port at destination
• Freight forwarder at origin
• Freight forwarder at destination
• Customs at origin
• Customs at destination
• Other government agencies at origin
• Other government agencies at destination
• Railroad or water transport at origin
• Railroad or water transport at destination
• Ocean carrier booking
• Ocean carrier transport
• More than one ocean vessel involved with movement

Add in the interchange of information between and among these various parties. The challenge is that each of these parties has a different role and responsibility. Each is working on the internal efficiency of their operation and not on the efficient movement, with no waste, of your shipment.

The reality of business is that it is global with suppliers, plants and customers worldwide. These trillions of dollars international operating arena is a challenge for lean.

LEAN BENEFITS

The benefits of lean for international are significant with managing the flow of products and information:

1. Compressed cycle times
2. Reduced logistics costs
3. Decreased days of inventory, better turns and sales yield maximization
4. Increased supply chain visibility
5. Improved supplier and supply chain performance
6. Enhanced customer service
7. Increased profits

Time compression creates opportunities to reduce inventory levels and logistics costs. However firms that do offshore sourcing are, by definition, adding time and, in turn, costs and inventory. Import cycle time also affects the utility, value and placement of inventory. And these affect customer service, sales revenues, inventory-to-cash cycle time and profits.

Lower logistics costs come from the predictability of an operation that does not have waste. Predictability means greater usage of planned modes and planned shipping schedules. It means less expedited shipments at higher cost.

Inventory improvements come from less need for safety stock and faster movement through the supply chain to the store or to the customer's door. Right inventory, at the right place and at the right time are the norm.

Supply chain visibility means importers manage purchase orders, supplier performance and logistics service. It cannot be done well with emails and faxes. They do this with online technology to provide needed integration. The technology would have exception and event management capabilities so that scheduled events occur or that remedial actions take place quickly. All this removes blind spots in the supply chain that create waste.

LEAN DETERMINATION

To be lean, companies should first assess their present operation. They must know how effective their practices are. The import supply chain must be analyzed. Firms should define what is expected and then how well the present operation functions.

Companies should analyze their offshore supply chain process. This means making sure that the operation uses a process, both internal and external. Firms can confuse transactions with being a process. The import supply chain is horizontal and crosses many internal department and many external sourcing and logistics firms. Companies that fail to understand the process struggle with achieving lean logistics. Instead of being lean, they force their inefficient practices on their external suppliers and logistics firms. This can compound the inability to be lean. Common indicators of a non-lean operation include:

• Poor information flow. Company does not know when a container will arrive and what it will contain. Containers show up at the warehouse with very little notice.
• Poor product flow. Firm struggles with having inventory flow. The lead time has too much variability. The result is ebbs of inventory bunching and gaps without any inventory.

Two performance metrics should be used to assess the operation. One is the perfect order, namely that each purchase order is received complete, accurate and on time. This is clear as to what it means.

The other is the total purchase order to delivery cycle time. There are three parts to the offshore supply chain-the internal purchase order preparation, supplier performance and logistics performance. The measure should include actions that trigger the purchase order and determine the need. Many firms waste days, even weeks, with the purchase order activity. And that lost time has an impact then on the suppliers' abilities and logistics service providers' capabilities to provide the perfect order.

Another time factor in the purchase order-delivery cycle may arise when orders are placed with U.S. firms who use offshore suppliers, contract manufacturing and factories. Each additional link in this information and product exchange can add inefficiency to the cycle time and to the required lean result. Importers must work with these suppliers to make sure that the lean initiative does not falter.

VISUAL DESCRIPTION

An excellent way to understand the international supply chain is to visualize it. The current condition of a supply chain can be described visually using "value stream mapping". The value stream comprises all the steps necessary to bring a product from its raw materials through production to delivery to the customer. With value stream mapping, all the steps in the supply chain process are identified and assessed as to whether they add value or create waste. Typically, there are two streams or flows to be described and analyzed. These are the flow of product and the flow of information.

This technique works well with the "pull" or Kanban basic approach of supply chain management. Inventory is pulled, not pushed, through the supply chain from customer back through to suppliers. With the pull, excess inventory should be removed from the supply chain.

Mapping is a tool to visualize what goes on. The picture is a way to see the non-value, waste-creating actions for both the product and the information flows. The two flows should be integrated. Otherwise opportunities for non-value added activities and for inconsistent actions are created.

Value stream mapping looks at a key product(s) that have high volume and/or high profit margins. The logistics process for each product is mapped, analyzed, waste is identified and a new process for the future is defined and implemented.

DATA COLLECTION

The mapping involves gathering customer or store information, depending on whether you are a wholesaler/distributor, manufacturer or retailer. Draw the process - from what triggers the purchase order, back through the suppliers and logistics providers, to delivery.

There can be 15 or more parties involved with the movement of product and information, and both the product and financial chains, so the supply chain can be complex to visualize. And the size means collaboration and co-operation are needed between and among all the parties involved for proper mapping and for identifying waste. A supplier in Shanghai whose key component comes from Thailand must participate actively in the mapping since all this is part of the process. This is not an option.

Or look at a customs broker who does not directly touch the product or the shipping container. He acts with the information and documentation to facilitate the movement of the product. But the linkage among the importer, customs broker, ocean carrier/air forwarder and delivering rail or trucker can create waste, by adding times and by stopping product flow.

Value stream mapping is a picture of the process or what is used as a process. The lack of a real process can create waste, or non-value-added activity. Global supply chain waste occurs as unneeded cycle time, inventory and cost. The cost waste often appears in the transportation and warehousing activities.

A company with no viable global supply chain process often has gaps in the "process" activities. In turn, redundancies occur at various points to compensate for gaps. These redundancies, with their extra and unnecessary work, are islands of waste in the flow. An example of a waste that can arise because of flaws and gaps in a process is expediting.

What also makes lean international supply chain management more complex and unique is that so much activity occurs outside the company. With lean manufacturing and domestic lean logistics, much of the activity occurs within the company.

Company people involved in global supply chain activities often push much of the waste they cause onto the outside parties. They do not understand the complexity and operations of the international aspect, or they have forced the outside activities to adjust to their lack of process and their waste practices. Demanding others to adapt to your waste activities is not collaboration, which is a two-way effort to reduce waste.

INDEPENDENT EYE

Analyze the map below. It helps to have someone independent here. Someone who is too close to the activity may not be able, in identifying internal waste to "see the wood for the trees". Organizations have dominant departments and dysfunctions that can impede real process - and supply chain management is a process, a cross-functional one.

It is easy to place responsibilities on external parties without understanding what your company does to trigger their actions. See where the process is being forced to fit your company or some other entity and, as a result, creates significant waste. Designing the new process requires clear analysis and thinking beyond traditional logistics. Otherwise, one flawed process can replace another flawed process.

The import supply chain must be seen as one event, not as two separate events of sourcing and of logistics. The dichotomy can show on both the product map and the information map. This affects the handoff from supplier to logistics service providers. Assessing modes, carriers/forwarders, service and ports/airports can reduce time for key products.

More than 25% of purchase orders are not shipped as planned or are not delivered as planned. This significant statistic presents a real opportunity to reduce waste. Supplier performance and supplier lead times are important areas for potential waste reduction and process improvement.

Also, the distribution network may be outdated. It may have been built years before with different store or customer configurations, different products, and other topics. It may have been built when the focus was on storing inventory in warehouses, unlike now when inventory velocity is emphasized. Touching the product to store it often adds only time - a waste result, not value (see map at bottom of facing page).

Bypassing warehouses with cross dock or other transfer facilities at ports can remove time and inventory. Supply chain execution technology can give visibility from the purchase order through to delivery order. It can provide the way to allocate product in transit. Making this part of the new process reduces two key wastes - time and inventory.

Global supply chain management has significant "built-in" time because of the distance involved. This runs counter to domestic supply chains. The extended time can, in turn, create uncertainty and the need for many companies to build and carry additional inventories. Yet time and inventory are two areas of waste for lean to improve. So lean international logistics faces an additional challenge because of its inherent scope and the impact throughout the supply chain, especially within the company.

OTHER LEAN PRACTICES

There is much to become lean to assess and change practices and operations. Some points for international include:

• Use technology to manage supplier performance and to integrate the movement of information among and between all parties.
• Design a process that is lean and includes all parties and that differentiates among different commodities and products and among different customers.
• Collaborate with key suppliers and logistics providers.
• Link demand and demand planning with replenishment and buying.
• Reduce the number of suppliers and logistics service providers to streamline the supply chain, without sacrificing results.
• Focus on supplier performance; control the supply chain at the international source. The offshore supply chain begins with the purchase order; transportation is a derivative of the purchase order and of supplier performance.
• Understand transport differences and options such as ocean carriers offering different transit times, different sailing schedules, different destination ports and different canals to the East Coast (Panama Canal versus Suez Canal).
• Align your financial supply chain with your trade supply chain. These two chains involve different sets of players with differing objectives and practices.
• Use a 4PL or 3PL to manage your offshore supply chain. Work with a supply chain service provider that understands the total supply chain complexity and operation. His interest should be your supply chain, including your suppliers and purchase orders, not just your freight. The firm should use process, technology and people to do this. The people should be located in the same country and locality as your suppliers.

GLOBAL COMPLEXITY

Identifying non-value added activities is especially important for worldwide supply chain management. Any activity that adds time and inventory and cost to the already complex activities can obstruct supply chain effectiveness. Value stream mapping is a tool for seeing and identifying waste, both internal and external. Seeing the current activities and the waste can form the basis of plans to improve the supply chain. This procedure is especially critical for high-volume and high-margin products where the impact on the company bottom line is significant.

Collaboration and co-operation within the company organization and between and among trading partners is important for truly removing waste across the entire supply chain. Accelerating cycle time, increasing inventory velocity and reducing costs for the high-volume and high-margin products can affect return on investment and drive the benefit of lean for everyone to see.

Lean logistics for international business offers significant potential to identify and reduce time, inventory and cost (see map above). And given the size of the international supply chain, both for importing and exporting, the approach merits the effort for bottom-line results. Value stream mapping provides an important tool for understanding the present supply chain and designing a new one.

TIME TO TRANSFORM THE 3PL BUSINESS MODEL

The 3PL has been around for decades.  It started when an accounting and consulting firm noticed that a Japanese client had people from a forwarder in their offices to handle exports.  This was a common practice in Japan.  But the firm promoted it and created a buzzword--third party logistics.  3PL.  Outside logistics providers.  Done by outsourcing.

And RFPs had something new to bid about. Those bids eventually devolved this "new" concept into a commodity service based on pricing.

It is time for change.  More to the point, it is time for Blue Ocean Strategy.  This became apparent with e-commerce and velocity, end-to-end.  The 3PL was based on logistics--warehousing, transportation, or freight forwarding.  

The pandemic made the need to move on more apparent.  Supply chains struggled through supply shocks and demand shocks. End to end.  It is time to transition from logistics providers to supply chain providers. Time for the 3PSCM.  Time for a disruptor.

Supply chains are large and complex.  Filled with nodes and links.  Many stakeholders and participants. A process that crosses the vertical organization.  That extends beyond the company.  Upstream where suppliers are and where the supply of supply chain management begins.  Supply chains within supply chains.   Downstream where customers are.  The customer experience.  And the technology that is required to manage this.

Logistics is not a standalone.  It is a derivative of a supply chain and that the supply chain gives context to the logistics.  It is about its value and role in supply chain management. It is about the supply chain process and embedding it within  the supply chain can increase operations performance. 

Putting 3PSCMs into the supply chain adds visibility, control, and management.  Adding and integrating technology and supply chain visibility is enhanced.  That is how it should be done.  

Bring the 3PSCM, with its logistics activity, into the supply chain management organization.  A hybrid of an outsourced service and of a part of the SCM.  This elevates the logistics segment and how it should be managed.  And the need and importance for this new business model grows as the size of supply chain organization does.

Something for manufacturers, retailers, 3PLs, and investors to think about.

SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE AND STORE FULFILLMENT / BOPIS

Is retail store fulfillment / #BOPIS a Supply Chain anti resilience approach with its dependence on people as compared to technology in warehouses? Just asking.

COVID-19 VACCINE—A SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS PLAN

 

A vaccine for CoViD is getting much attention.  There are several firms in different countries working on it.  Now there are articles on a macro view of the number of planes needed to transport and the required temperatures for a vaccine. These and other articles are interesting with their high-level view. 

But they are not actionable.  What is needed is an end-to-end (E2E) global supply chain operation plan to distribute the vaccine across the world.  This is complex in what must be done, the geographic scope, product requirements, and the time pressure to do it.

With a world population of 7.8 billion and possibly 2 doses per person, this is a huge undertaking to move it around the globe.  Upfront, the availability of potential transportation and storage resources seems insufficient.  That adds to the challenge and need for a plan—to be ahead of the game and to minimize as many problems—and there will be problems.

Presented here is a plan, rough perhaps, with many unknowns at this time.  It is a working document that can be updated as more details/information arises as to product requirements, production location or locations; country demand; transportation, storage, and logistics resources; and other specifics evolve. Please note, the names of any transportation, warehouse, or logistics firms will not be mentioned. This is about the plan. Names will arise with the design and implementation.

A very important point.  This project defines VUCA—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The standard approaches will not work.  Change will be a dynamic constant to the point it could be considered organized chaos.

Again, 7.8 billion people in 100+ countries, possibly 2 doses each, a potential vaccine that requires temperature protection at below freezing temperatures or face vaccine degradation. Protecting the vaccine from manufacturing through to injection is the underlying concern with the project and will require more than transportation and storage.  VUCA. A project that defines challenge.

·       Prepare a list of contacts at receiving countries who will coordinate, both medical and supply chain. Collaboration is important for such an end-to-end undertaking.

·       Err on the side of caution with developing and implementing the plan.

·       Start with vaccine raw materials/ingredients (active and inactive)—where sourced, production rates and quantities, how to ship, what is required for handling & storage, including space.  Do not forget vials and/or ampules, caps, labels, and packaging.

·       Understand production batch/lot sizes and production rate, including any as to language for labels.

·       Establish a plan that covers the entire timeline--from launch period through to expected production to satisfy worldwide needs. 

·       Know the product distribution plan—ship how many to where and the sequencing/prioritization.  That is a starting point.  With this is recognizing how to pack the shipment to maintain temperature.

·       Measure time from door-to-door for each origin-destination.  This is critical for product temperature protection.

·       Understand that transportation space and availability and cold chain storage space will influence shipment sizes.

·       Track vaccine drawdowns. This is important for shipment scheduling and to not have more product at a destination than there is temperature protection space.

·       Recognize destination and origin-destination differences. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It must understand and adapt to the product and operating realities.  This is important.

·       Assign countries to ship to if there are multiple production sites.

·       Collaborate and coordinate with destination supply chain people on transport and warehouse issues, space, local nuances, providers, and other issues.  This should be ongoing.

·       Determine special needs as to cold chain and/or cool chain temperature for storage, transport, sanitary, chain of custody. Do this for each tier of transport and storage for vials unopened and opened.  Chain of custody is important to manage the product requirements, operational events, and to prevent criminals from theft, and to restrict counterfeits.

·       Analyze space and service needs for air cargo and cold/cool chain storage.

·       Calculate for each destination as to shipments sizes, ready release dates, and the number of shipments.

·       Calculate storage needs at the origin, including production rate and build inventory timing and releases/drawdowns.

·       Calculate storage needs for each destination.

·       Focus on door-to-door speed.

·       Minimize the number of handlings, stops, and transfers of products to mitigate temperature and contamination problems.

·       Understand destinations—airports, adequacies for storage and moving vaccine safely.

·       Define what carriers, warehouses, and transport/logistics providers can do as to product requirements, shipment/storage over the total timeframe, and sanitary conditions. Do it for origin, destinations, and intermediate locations.

·       Secure contractual firm space and service commitments by origin-destination (not by an aggregate or macro basis) to meet what is required for product requirements and time to perform, including variation, for transport and warehousing.  Lock it up.

·       Conclude transport and storage capabilities with production and distribution plans.

·       Set the technology to follow the movement of the vaccine—bar code, RFID, or other.

·       Maintain temperature integrity. Track end-to-end temperature.

·       Monitor chain of custody.

·       Achieve maximum E2E visibility, technologies, and technology integration.

·       Understand Customs requirements at destination airports to speed movement and quick handling from planes landing and shipping to end destinations.

·       Quantify that hospitals, doctors, and other medical/pharmaceutical places that will dispense vaccine can handle for safe handling and storage.

·       Ensure needed supplies of syringes, swabs, bandaids, gloves, and other needed PPE at each dispensing destination location.

The above would present the ideal, Plan A model.  But the best-laid plans, including expected shortages of air cargo and cold chain storage infrastructure and capabilities and stability, a Plan B, a C, and even D or more to have the needed scope and viability, are useful to be ready for the just-in-case and to cover all the needs, especially temperature related. 

Here the purpose is to identify, assess, and mitigate risks/problems. This would include:

ü      Identify areas/points where there are inadequacies, including destination alternatives in  the event of transport and/or storage shortcomings.

Analyze potential performance problem areas.

ü Review ways to improve performance door-to-door and mitigate delays. Big ways to lesser ways. For example, for customs clearance and freight payment.

ü Assess gaps between needs and space availabilities.

ü Evaluate technology gaps, such as for visibility.

ü Create alternative lanes for transportation routes and storage for coverage.

ü Develop cooling alternatives and how and where best to use them.

The plan that is developed for the vaccine also has to be prepared for other events that can affect the operations.  For example, what if there was a global demand surge for CoViD monoclonal antibody therapies that would compete for many of the same supply chain resources as the vaccine?

There is much work to be done.  Much is at stake here.  And much to do it--the required process, technology, organization, and logistics infrastructure.  A supply chain team in place early to design a program—then to manage it.  The size and complexity of the project demand it.