#InThisTogether: 08 SEP 2020

With everything going on during the COVID-19 crisis, we wanted to share some of the stories about what Cook people are doing during this difficult time. All around the Cook world, we are #InThisTogether, and we would love to hear stories about how you and your coworkers are stepping up to make a difference. If you have a story to share, please email us at BlogEditor@CookMedical.com.

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Rising to the occasion

By Tamilarasan Jayaraman, Supply Chain manager, India Delivery Center.

As Cook continued to support its business worldwide amid the COVID-19 outbreak, its supply chain was faced with considerable challenges, including our operation in India. We saw skyrocketing air freight rates with most airlines grounding more than 90% of the passenger aircraft fleets, and capacities dipped. This intensely limited capacity caused airfreight prices to soar steeply and rapidly. Cook India experienced as high as a ten-fold increase in freight rates during this time. In addition, frequent flight cancellations and postponements due to lockdowns and border restrictions have caused transit time to be unpredictable and lengthen the lead time (the total time to complete a process from start to finish) to great extents.

Cook has traditionally shipped products around the globe via air to ensure quick and safe deliveries. To ensure we continue to be able to supply our products and services to the medical communities, CSD took efforts to look into available options to overcome the challenge at hand.

Chennai, where Cook India Delivery Centre (INDC) is located, has an international airport as well as the second largest container seaport in India. At this time, shipping our products by ocean freight seemed a viable option when we considered factors like lead time, freight cost, quality standards, and shipment integrity. Thanks to Kelly Lim, director, CSD Asia-Pacific (APAC), for initiating this move and for the support from Steve Lloyd, senior manager, Supply Chain Distribution, APAC; Loretta Hsu, supply chain manager, Customs, APAC; Abdul Kader, supply chain manager, South Asia Delivery Center (SADC); and Vijay Govindaraman, general manager, Cook India. The team worked collaboratively to share the objective and received approval from management and stakeholders.

We put our first test shipment into a refrigerated container, which was temperature and humidity controlled. Maintaining the product integrity remained our top priority. We utilized cargo signaling technology provided by the freight forwarder. This was a cloud-based software that gave Cook real-time location and tracking of the shipment. It monitored the temperature range and humidity level continuously and would send off automatic alerts should the range or level surpass the settings.

INDC successfully received the first sea shipment from SADC on June 19, 2020. The cargo arrived in good condition with the product integrity well intact. The lead time of the shipment was almost similar to that of air freight in the current pandemic environment. We immediately realized a 60% cost savings through this shipment. A quick simulation showed that a potential of 38% savings is achievable when things return to normalcy.

This has given us a new way of effectively handling the supply chain in any crisis and indicates potential cost savings in the future. Thanks to all SADC and INDC team members for supporting this initiative.

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