Winning COVID-19 Blog 3: The Emergence Of A Healthy Supply Chain

ProcessMAP > Risk & Compliance > Winning COVID-19 Blog 3: The Emergence Of A Healthy Supply Chain

As companies worldwide look to bring their employees back to work following the COVID-19 crisis, ProcessMAP has been leading a weekly EHS leadership roundtable – Winning COVID-19 with ProcessMAP – to facilitate industry’s largest virtual gathering to share effective strategies, best practices, and innovative solutions to help minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organizations.

Focusing on supply chain is not new, but supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 crisis have put an entirely new emphasis on suppliers’ organizational health and readiness. Companies have an increased need to gain visibility and assist wherever possible, especially the smaller suppliers who might have limited resources to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Not only is it critical to understand the supplier’s ability to deliver essential parts and services, but also that they do this in a manner which mitigates the risk of spreading the virus through the supply chain. We have a front seat view on this topic.

Recently, we heard from Jessica Jannaman, Global Director of EHS & Energy for Dura Automotive Systems, who shared her perspective regarding where exposure occurs in the supply chain and steps Dura is taking to minimize the risk of exposure. Because certain parts are made by other suppliers, Dura has identified three possible sources of exposure to COVID-19 in the supply chain:

Exposure at the supplier’s location
Exposure during transport
Exposure at the assembly line

Jessica shared that Dura Automotive will be deploying ProcessMAP’s Supply Chain Health Portal to provide a two-way communication platform allowing the company to gain visibility to the status of their suppliers’ compliance to precautions against the COVID-19 risks. Additionally, Dura Automotive will leverage the solution to share effective tools and best practices with their supply chain.

Dura Automotive recently completed a risk assessment within its supply chain and implemented the following measures:

Validate that required controls are in place at a supplier’s site by sharing Dura Automotive’s own safety playbook, and help the suppliers follow similar procedures
Protect employees from exposure by disinfecting parts that arrive at a site and providing appropriate PPE
Communicate to customers that required controls have been followed throughout the supply chain
Reduce the risk of a site shutdown, at both Dura Automotive’s location as well as any supplier, due to the spread of the COVID-19 disease

Furthermore, the company has also developed a Hierarchy of Controls for COVID-19, which looks at eliminating or avoiding exposure within its supply chain; substituting in-person meetings with virtual meetings where possible; implementing engineering controls such as physical guards to improve distancing and increase air circulation; implementing administrative controls such as social distancing and hand washing; and providing personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout its facilities.

As was evident from Jessica’s presentation, the role of EHS leaders continues to evolve in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to include supporting supply chain leaders. Dura Automotive is co-innovating with ProcessMAP on deploying a Supply Chain Risk Management Portal to collaborate with its 4,000 suppliers and ensure that all relevant measures are implemented by the suppliers to eliminate the risk of exposure to the COVID-19 disease.

This blog is a part of a new series of curated content that ProcessMAP will be sharing with the larger EHS community. Click Here to read the next blog in this series. To read our previous blog in this series, Click Here!

#StaySafe