Keeping global supply chains moving day by day is a forwarders key task in these challenging days. GEFCO Global Time Critical Solutions Director Klaas Sybrandy and GEFCO Special Coordinator Guy Bourgeois know how to manage demands – today and tomorrow.
We’ve never experienced a bigger test for the global transit model of goods and services than in the first three months of this year. The Covid-19 pandemic has created unparalleled challenges for every single aspect of our daily lives and business activities.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, GEFCO teams have been mobilized to manage the consequences of government directives. Supply chain disruptions – particularly in the short term – have been inevitable, and our global network is motivated to find multimodal alternatives to respond to customers’ challenges.
For many, planning for supply chain disruptions is already part of their business continuity strategy, while Covid-19’s new realities will influence others’ future organization. Be it automotive parts, FMCG, electronics or critical pharmaceuticals, customers demand that our people provide energy, excellence and go the extra mile to keep global supply chains moving on a daily basis.
These situations aren’t commonplace
Just-in-time supply chains (JIT) have become ubiquitous, saving money on warehousing, reducing inventory levels and meeting the instantaneous demands of businesses and consumers alike. When unexpected occurrences disrupt such highly efficient value chains, however, additional costs can increase exponentially – and customer loyalty can dissipate at the same time. Here, robust backup plans are essential to ensure resilience in the supply chain.
As an industry, we’re already well versed in disruption and how to respond to it, overall. Suspensions in international traffic due to weather systems, world events, political disputes and strike action are commonplace. While a global pandemic is clearly extraordinary and causes disruption on a far greater scale, we’re building from a well-established foundation in responding to it.
License to deliver
Supporting companies with urgent global deliveries is in our DNA, and we have long offered time-critical solutions to help those in need during unexpected events. We’ve continued to grow and evolve as time critical logistics have become the modus operandi for global business.
Last year, we set up a mission control center in Amsterdam, where we provide operational support and coordination for time-critical air freight shipments anywhere in the world. Together with our road mission control centers, the combination of our global coverage and local on-the-ground expertise act as a single point of contact for customers, providing real-time monitoring updates on their emergency shipments.
This covers planned and unplanned missions, from production-line interruptions to demanding distribution channels. 2020 has already brought incredibly testing scenarios for our capabilities, which we’ve honed over time with our partners through a series of challenging time critical assignments.
Following the partial closure of car manufacturing plants across Europe at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we transported more than 750 tons of key automotive spare parts from China to Europe in eight chartered flights, with additional next-flight-out solutions provided from Morocco, South America and Mexico to Europe, to prevent production stoppages. This spirit of global cooperation, determination and expertise defines our response to such a crisis.
In a similar vein, we’ve also significantly built on our existing relationship with a major multinational healthcare business to ship medical material and equipment from Europe to Maghreb and Antilles and from China to Europe every week during the critical pandemic period – all completed in incredibly tight timeframes to deliver the vital materials securely, efficiently and in compliance with all requirements.
Working together
All this is only a part of the process, however. As manufacturers begin to consider restarting activities, the well-being and safety of everyone in our supply chain is more of a priority than ever. Our teams have adjusted superbly to the new working environments stipulated by official guidance, and we will continue to adapt as the situation evolves. If everyone sings from the same hymn sheet, the margins for error are reduced and the movement of critical goods can continue unimpeded. People are what make our business, and nowhere is that truer than with our teams delivering time-critical solutions. In the eye of the storm of a crisis – be it global or isolated – we act as the calm conductor, finding a solution, delivering it quickly and providing the human touch.
SOURCE: GEFCO
