The coronavirus will be written in history as the biggest global disaster since World War II. It's a chilling reminder of how fragile humanity is, and how quickly our lives can be turned upside-down by Mother Nature. While this disease is currently claiming lives across the world and leaving billions quarantined in their homes for everyone's safety, I want to look ahead and explore what needs to happen for supply chain to respond to future global disruptions. This is my perspective as a supply chain management professional in the healthcare field.

Ok, we've all heard it from our superiors: cut costs, don't order so much inventory, what do you mean we're out of stock?! It's a never ending cycle of finding ways to do more with less. For me, that's part of the fun and why I love doing this for a living. But at what point does lean manufacturing (just-in-time IMS) become reckless and irresponsible, especially for those in healthcare being held accountable for people's lives. It's a dangerous line that's being walked and begs the question: What if some type of major disaster happens and we can’t respond to it? Well....that day arrived and we're now watching it play out across the globe. We're seeing it over the news "Hospitals Facing Coronavirus Are Running Out of Masks, Other Key Equipment,” and other articles on this topic. We’re reading about companies like Tesla and Ford scrambling to make ventilators, or breweries making hand sanitizer instead of beer. I commend these companies for stepping up and trying to help, but this cannot be the answer. Remember, the goal of supply chain management is to deliver products to end users as fast as possible, and we didn’t do that. We failed to deliver products to healthcare workers when they were needed.

So, we’ve learned lean manufacturing doesn’t have the ability to respond to large scale global disasters like the coronavirus. So what do we do to help us prepare for the future? We have to better mobilize supply chain’s ability to respond to global disasters of any kind. The answer to this is, we adopt supply chain stress tests into our practice. A stress test is defined as “a computer simulation technique used to test the resilience of institutions and investment portfolios against possible future financial situations.” As what came out of the 2008 financial crisis, financial institutions are required by law to perform these tests to see how well they can weather economic uncertainty. But, I am seeing very limited information on stress tests being used for supply chains. This wasn’t something I learned about in business school or see widely discussed within APICS or any other supply chain management association as of me writing this article. I don’t see a reason as to why this technique cannot be adopted into supply chain management principles. Now, what I’d like to see addressed in a supply chain stress test:

· How long will our safety stock last

· How quickly can manufacturers respond to unexpected demand

· Capital implications of holding more safety stock

· Lost revenue for being unable to respond to sudden increases in demand

I’ll emphasize that these tests can be used in any company, for any industry, for any situation. But, those are the four main topics I’d like to see addressed. When these tests are first completed, I’m confident that the results will be eye opening for a management team. But this is what I feel is needed for us to evolve our profession to better serve our customers and the world. Whether government mandated stress tests should be required for healthcare facilities and manufacturers I think is an interesting topic, it wouldn’t surprise me to see that happen. Now, I’m expecting to see finance teams dismiss this idea and maybe even some manufacturers who don’t want to increase capital spending to address uncertainty. But in this test we explore financial implications of not having the ability to respond to sudden rises in demand. I'll ask the question for those of us working in the healthcare field: Was your supply chain ready for the coronavirus?

So i'll make the bold claim: lean manufacturing is now obsolete, and I'd go as far to say that it's an inappropriate practice for healthcare supply chains.

This is just my thought on how supply chain ties into the coronavirus situation. I do plan on testing out this stress test theory for my organization and see what type of results I get. This is the first article I’ve ever published in my career and I do plan on writing more. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and feel free to share it or ask me questions.

Some future topics I’d like to discuss:

Will China still be the manufacturing capital of the world after the coronavirus?

Can supply chain professionals be automated and to what extent?