How Supply Chain Changes Will Affect YOU!

 

Do the shelves of your grocery stores look as if they’ve been looted?

Our grocery shelves are bare, stores don’t know when the trucks are coming with fresh stock, and according to one store employee, shelf stockers may find themselves laid-off because there’s just no stock to put on the shelves! 

At least 25% of reported Canadian truckers are vaccinated, and up to 40% of American truckers are as well. But many disagree with the mandate to get immunized or pull over. While there is a “Freedom Convoy” on the way to Ottawa to protest, many feel it's a waste of time. They believe the government will dig their heels in and force truckers to get the jab or be sidelined. Truckers are not allowed across the border without proof of immunization, and this mandate has slowed delivery of goods, food-stuff and all kinds of supplies. Shelves are bare, and when a delivery truck does pull in, word gets out and a rush is on to get supplies before it’s all gone. There is no more waiting until pay-day to get your food.

Get it now or go without.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says there are reports of truckers intending to leave the industry. The industry is expecting a loss of 12,000 to 16,000 cross-border commercial drivers due to this month’s mandate. That’s a lot of groceries held up by a lack of drivers.

The pandemic has affected 72% of businesses in one way or another. Over the past two years, organizations with smart leadership have been able to pivot, learn and adapt in order to stay alive. Many industry leaders took a hard look at their systems, invested in digital tools, new approaches and replaced legacy systems that were no longer were adaptable. This self-reflection and investment will (hopefully) allow them to move from a reactionary position to one of foresight and better responsiveness. 

One of those new approaches is called “supply chain as a service”, or SCaaS. In essence, a company would sign with a service partner to support all their supply chain needs such as item procurement, manufacturing, quality control, warehousing, and logistics enabled by cloud software. This approach is similar to tech giants who provide all the services their clients might need, preventing them from having to look elsewhere for splinter components of their needs. In the SCaaS model, current logistics companies could study the needs of their clients and grow in directions that would provide more services, thereby solidifying their potential for adaptability and future growth. This is good for the economy because it would ease much of the procurement, pricing and logistics nightmares stores battled with before the pandemic. Even smaller chains. It’s good for the end consumer too, because it eases (in theory) much of the supply issues.

The days of the “just in time” system are over. The companies and organizations that will survive these changing times are the ones that will adopt elastic responses. Basically, organizations who plan ahead and have different response plans to different scenarios. No more “just in time” inventory, but plans A, B and C that are adapted for different demands from consumers. This will minimize risk, improve customer service and ultimately build a more loyal customer base. From the customer’s perspective, an elastic response should lessen shortages and respond more quickly to changing demands.

But all of this will not come into play next week. It may take the duration of 2022 for any of these scenarios to be enacted. In the meantime, it is up to the individual consumer, you and I, to find the best way forward for ourselves. For our families. It is up to us to do as the supply chain industry has done - study what we currently consume, examine how we can provide it for ourselves and adopt more elastic systems moving forward. Take on increased responsibility for personal resilience by doing more for ourselves, while consuming less of what we don’t really need. Leaning more heavily on the limping supply chain won’t get us any further ahead. Being more responsible for ourselves, thinking creatively, adapting to the empty shelves and growing what food we can is good for our mental health and morale. It worked for our grandparents and it will work for us.

If you enjoyed what you’ve just read, think how smart you’ll look when you tell your friends about it. So share this with everyone you know! Thanks so much for sharing your time with me today. 

Plunged Into Darkness

 

There you are, scrolling through Netflix, unable to decide what to watch when suddenly, your world goes black! No light from the television or computer, nothing. With the light from your cell phone guiding you, you make your way over to the window and look outside. All the buildings around you are dark too. Oh crap, this can’t be good.

Power failure. Okay, the electricity will come back on in a minute, right?

A minute later, you lift your phone to scroll through Facebook, only to realize the battery has less than fifty percent battery left.

You reach for the charging cord and stop…no power. Crap.

A short walk will help kill the time, yeah! But you’re on the tenth floor of your building. Crap, no elevator either. You don’t want to walk down the stairs lit only by emergency lighting, just to have to walk back up later. So you decide to go to bed early, maybe the power will be back on when you wake up.

But when you wake up, shivering a few hours later, there’s still no power and no heat. The wind is coming out of the north, blowing against your balcony door and your apartment is getting cold.

What do you do?

So many people have dismissed this scenario without considering it. Many people found themselves wishing they hadn’t. 

Breakfast on a barbeque?

Take the big power failure of 2003. Not everyone was prepared for 12 hours without electricity. Some were at a loss for how they would feed their family. Restaurants were without power too, so there was no help there. I was lucky. We lived on the ground floor of our apartment building and had a barbeque. Bacon had already thawed, so we had breakfast for lunch, and many of our closest neighbours popped by to see how we were cooking. The smell of bacon drew them in more than their curiosity, I’m sure. They were all surprised to see my cast iron fry pans. A few even asked if I’d cook for them after I was done, if they supplied the food!

We weren’t really inconvenienced at all because we had a “Plan B”. If the power were to go out, we’d simply cook on the barbeque. We already had the cast iron pans, because I love cooking on them, but they stood up to the flames better than any Teflon coated pan could have.

Things really got fun when an irritated neighbour with no sense of humour called the fire department on me, claiming my barbeque was up against the building. It wasn’t. I knew the regs. When the fire department showed up, they verified that the grill was more than far enough away from the building and expressed a little envy over the burgers that I was, by then, grilling.

Except for that one neighbour, I was the hit of the building. Our side, at least.

But I was lucky to live on the ground floor, and prepared. Not everyone was.

Do you know how you would cook in a power failure that lasted more than four hours? Do you have a backup plan? If you live in an apartment building, do you know what the rules are in your building for barbeques or camp stoves? If you have a house, even a rental, what would be your backup plan? If you have a family, you can’t just throw your hands in the air. They’re relying on YOU to know what to do. 

Time for Plan B

A 4-hour power failure is a good wake-up call. Consider plan B for cooking, communication, water and flushing the toilet. Brainstorm on paper. Get your family involved in your brainstorming. Discuss alternatives to your everyday lives. What will you do if there is a large scale power failure that results in your family getting sent home from work or school? (Assuming we ever get to go back to life as we knew it, but that’s another post for another time) Do you have a back-up, charged battery for your cell phone, or some other way to reach out for help if the need arose? Do you have a solar power bank you can draw on, or perhaps a generator?

Even apartment dwellers can usually find space to store water. While I try and discourage single-use plastic water bottles, a case of 12 or 24 stashed under a bed is better than no saved water at all. If your circumstances are such that you have 4 in your family, and you have room to store a case of bottled water under each bed - do it. It’s better to have it when you need it, than to take the moral high ground and make your children go thirsty needlessly. 

What’s under your bed?

When you have the water taken care of, assume 4 gallons (for drinking) per person and pet per day, then turn your attention to food. Make a list of what your family likes, figure 3 days of food and take steps to set that aside. Under beds are frequently overlooked as storage spaces, as is the bottom of closets. Storage tubs that fit under beds can be purchased at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Canadian Tire or any local hardware store that you prefer. You can store 3 days of shelf-stable food in one of those, put it on top of the case of water that you’ve already stashed away, and you’re two steps closer to providing for your family in case of an emergency. Oh, and if your emergency food stash includes canned goods, don’t forget a can opener!

I live out in the woods now, and the weather is a concern most especially in the winter. We don’t get as much snow as we used to when we moved here, but we do get more erratic storms. Today, for instance 8” of snow was predicted. I spent almost my entire day shovelling the driveway (twice!) and I can tell you we got much closer to a foot of snowfall. Combine that with wicked wind gusts and there was a lot of potential for a power failure. Not surprising with all the trees that grow close to the power lines.

Transformers - not the fun kind

Last year, our local power company sent out crews to take down any and all trees growing within a certain distance of power lines. Makes sense, even if I do hate the mess they left behind. However, no one foresaw a local transformer blowing up one evening. Some of us were without power for far, far longer than we liked, because the power company had to order a new transformer up from Southern Ontario. The kicker of all this is that power companies don’t keep spares around. Why? Cost and availability.

Transformers, depending on the type, could cost anywhere from $7,300.00 to $325,000.00 for the high voltage ones. There are a mere 11 companies in the United States that make different types of transformers for a variety of applications, but not all high voltage. In low-demand conditions, an order for a high-voltage transformer takes 12-24 months from order to delivery for a domestically manufactured unit. But the number of companies that produce high-voltage units are declining. Their profit margins are ruled by more in-demand products, parts and services. High-voltage, powerful transformers are expensive, so smaller power companies, like ours, can’t afford to have one or two sitting around “just in case”.

So all of this is to warn you that the power might not come back on “shortly”. It might be days. It’s up to you to be forward-thinking, creative and plan ahead for you and your family. Brainstorming and planning now could save you a world of hurt in the future.