Greenhouse Growers, How’s Your Supply Chain Holding Up?

I think we have all realized by now that quarantines and masks will eventually come to an end. Yet, the aftershocks of the coronavirus will be felt for a long time after the initial crisis is over. The question is – what does that mean for your operation?

We’ve already seen evidence that major turbulence in the economy leads to disruptions in the exchange of goods and services. The coronavirus has laid bare the weak links in supply chains across many industries, and its residual effects will continue to chip away at them. But as the saying goes, you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know you have one. Now is the time to focus on supply chain risk management — while the lessons learned are fresh in our minds.

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I asked Dave Malenfant, Director of Outreach & Partnerships at the Neeley School of Business and past Chairman of the Supply Chain Council, for his thoughts on the subject.

“We are seeing major shifts of the supplier base to on-shoring — bringing things back to the U.S. or Central America and away from Asia,” he says. “I believe the supply chain will become more efficient as shippers (including agriculture) start implementing more enabling technology to be less reliant upon people. The use of artificial intelligence and, perhaps, blockchain will become more adopted by all players in the supply chain. COVID-19 has caused an unprecedented bullwhip in the supply chain, and I believe we will learn from this and be more efficient.”

A key finding from a survey conducted by the Tempe, AZ-based Institute for Supply Chain Management found that nearly 75% of the companies surveyed reported supply chain disruptions in some capacity, due to coronavirus-related transportation restrictions, and more than 80% believe their organization will experience some impact because of COVID-19 disruptions in the future. With stats like that, it seems the best tactic is to take peace-of-mind measures and plan for disruptions in your supply chain.

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Have you mapped out and analyzed your supply chain to identify potential problems? Do you have an action plan in case of a disruption? If a shortage of products does occur, you’ll want to move quickly to secure the goods you need ahead of other companies that are after the same thing. Identifying potential disruption risks from your suppliers now and forming a go-to plan for how to handle them will help you respond faster, without wasted time on assessment and decision making.

You might also want to take stock of your existing inventories. Do you have enough products to last you for a substantial amount of time should they become unavailable due to a problem with a supplier caused by the coronavirus? Have you identified an alternative supplier who could supply these goods should problems arise, and do you know what their capacity is for supplying that product?

You could put your hopes in the “it will never happen to me” line of thinking. I would point out, though, that many of us never thought the coronavirus pandemic would happen to us. It never hurts to prepare for the future. At the very least, you might get a better night’s rest knowing you have done all you can do to help your business weather whatever storm comes its way.


Sound-off: Have you experienced disruptions in your supply chain, or do you expect to in the future? Tell me about it in the comment section below.

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