There are few people still alive that experienced a World War.<\/p>\n
In some cases, countries have experienced a local war. Despite support and sanctions from other countries, they really don\u2019t get involved. The reality is we haven\u2019t learned about Customer-first or even World-first thinking. We tend to work in a vacuum \u2013 me first \u2013 and perhaps that\u2019s why we tend to ignore rules and common sense, while others overtake us.<\/p>\n
Well we have a World War now against a pandemic and sorting Covid-19 recovery globally. Each continent, country, city, suburb, group, family, individual has to consciously be responsible for sticking to sensible rules and collaborative action. Just like one person\u2019s carelessness can lead to infection of hundreds and tens of deaths.<\/p>\n
The war-winner has to be vaccine and the winners will be those nations that sort early vaccination of their population \u2013 Israel, the UK and USA are far ahead of the pack and their life and economies will see first-recovery benefit.<\/p>\n
I took a look at how we South Africans are doing as it\u2019s not just about people\u2019s attitude but also about effective Logistics and Systems that enable this.<\/p>\n
Government Learning from The Covid Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s laudable and appropriate that government wants to manage and control national supply and distribution of Covid Vaccine to the population. But in many countries good intentions have highlighted the governments\u2019 collective lack of understanding of \u201cSupply Chain\u201d. If your Procurement Department is called \u201cSupply Chain\u201d that\u2019s what you get \u2013 supplier selection and ordering \u2013 government is learning it\u2019s a chain with many links and the most difficult to synchronize are more than just procurement. In many instances much of a governments\u2019 processes are still reliant on paper and signatures for the honest majority to follow, highlighting that draconian government procurement needs more appropriate real System enablement to manage the not so honest as well.<\/p>\n Vaccinating a country is a global process \u2013 buy a few different products from a couple of suppliers, import and store in bulk. Add procurement of syringes, PPEs and other required materials. Then plan hundreds of loads to thousands of vaccination points \u2013 all in vehicles and equipment that maintain appropriate temperature conditions (cold-chain) \u2013 so the right quantity arrives at the right place at the right time. While others coordinate millions of people to register on-line and arrive at these points at the correct date\/time in an orderly fashion to be vaccinated. And then there are the medical staff to organize. Sure this is teaching government that Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are essential to raise fair planning intentions to effective execution. It is also highlighting the need for government departments to Systemize fast. Seems to be the ideal environment to add or optimize an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Retailers expected and planned for a rise in online shopping. But most were not ready for the huge uptake of eCommerce exposing the African Raptor (rapid adaptor) from the Sloth (slow thinker).<\/p>\n All businesses are being forced into understanding effective inventory and storage management. They really get to see where proper application of Business IT shows its value in managed change and execution to customer preferences. And SYSPRO ERP played its part here \u2013 we had many calls for help to smooth processes that should have been anticipated by customers and SYSPRO earlier and faster. For many of us, lockdown meant getting to see your home, and remote meetings. For business, Lockdown was like a visit to the gym after a long break \u2013 some fit, some not so fit and many realizing it too late.<\/p>\n But luckily for our economies new skills are emerging as common sense with inventory management understanding, growing as experience of demand\/supply changes spreads.<\/p>\n We have learned how to handle:<\/strong><\/p>\n And now it\u2019s time to max value from your ERP to enable these processes and more. Don\u2019t wait for the next crisis to learn \u2013 use this time to look ahead and dovetail your Business IT Roadmap to your Business Strategy. Kill the spreadsheet planning, eliminate delays between physical and system transactions that destroy coordinated execution. If this is familiar, please speak to your ERP contact\/ally or speak to me. Sure you may spend some money but you\u2019ll get honest experienced help that will more than deliver value.<\/p>\n
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\nPrivate Sector learning from Lockdown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n