The big news this week is the spread of swine flu, particularly in low-cost sourcing hotspot, Mexico. In fact, Mexico is shutting down its private industry for five days!
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Yep, five days of no production, no shipping, no phone calls returned, etc. from your Mexican suppliers. And, who knows: if those five days fail to sufficiently contain the spread of swine flu, the final supply disruption could be longer.
Back in 2006, I wrote an article entitled “The Next Purchasing Crisis & Contingency Plans.” It gave several steps for how to mitigate supply chain risk in the face of the predicted spread of bird flu or similar pandemic.
Well, my friends, that time is here. The tips are still valid.
If you didn’t implement my recommendations three years ago, I strongly suggest that you do so now. Even if swine flu doesn’t materialize to be the massive pandemic some officials fear it will become, you can probably bet that there will be more pandemic scares in the future.
Don’t get caught off-guard.
To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM® Certification Online At
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com
Comments
I’m living in coastal Mexico and things are calm here. The shutdown days are Friday through Tuesday, so two of the days are a weekend and the third day is Labor Day, already a holiday. Total unexpected shutdown is 2 days.
I was just at a hospital today seeing a doctor about an orthopedic condition and the hospital was empty. No signs of sick people mobbing emergency rooms at all.
Maybe 5% of the people on the street are wearing masks.
Because the schools are closed, a lot of Mexican families headed from the cities to the beach, so hotels are packed here in Vallarta. I do have a flight attendant friend who lives here, and she said her flight down from Dallas had 34 people on it.
Now, to put this in a procurement context, at this point you have an unexpected two day delay in shipments. You do have contingency plans to speed up transit time by a few days, don’t you?