Most companies’ ability to deliver their products or services highly depends on consistent supplies of raw materials, components or services from suppliers.
It is not unusual in life science industry to have single source of polymer due to the requirements on supplier qualification, validation of processes, stability testing and product registration. It is very time consuming and costly to change critical raw materials and for primary packaging for medicinal products it can often take a couple of years. Change of critical raw materials for medial devices can as well be very time consuming and costly.
In 2015 EU polymer industry declared force majeure on more than 40 occasions in 4 months and there was a lot of concerns in the industry and focus on Supply Chain Contingency Plans.
The last years with more severe weather conditions has also left its imprints on the plans.
2020 is a very unusual year with Covid-19 pandemic and a comprehensive world lock-down, which also impact some companies’ ability to supply as in the example below
I guess that most companies have urgently to update their supply chain contingency plan with the risk for pandemic.
If you are lacking a good template and process for supply chain contingency plans and are interested in an online course, please let me know and I will thank you with a 25% discount on your first online training. Follow the link for more details: Online Courses by Borgensgaard Consulting