A University of Manitoba researcher is about to dive into a study to see if our supply chains will hold up under the pressure of a global pandemic like COVID-19.
Dr. Adolf Ng from the Asper School of business was given a $258,900 grant as part of $25 million in funding from the Government of Canada, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to carry out his study. He will be looking at specifically how resilient our supply chains are during the crisis, especially considering the impact of the novel coronavirus on major ports like Vancouver.
The study will look at the current strengths and weaknesses of our current supply chain system locally and globally, and to see what is the type of market and demand this supply chain is working for.
“Nowadays a lot of the basic necessities and supplies are not produced in Canada, many of them are produced somewhere and they come all of the way across the ocean from different parts of the world,” he said.
The supply chain then goes from these ports and distributes to other parts of the country.
In Canada he will be studying Manitoba, Ontario and B.C. as distribution points. He will also be looking at three cities in China including Wuhan, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
“The global supply chain is not just about going from China to Vancouver, it also has a long way about the inland distribution and the inland logistical systems and how stuff when they arrive at the gateway port and the gateway airport, how would they be distributed to the inland,” said Ng. “The inclusion of Winnipeg and Manitoba will be able to make this project more complete.”
The study has four objectives, to see how we react as individuals and as a society to supply and demand, to identify attributes for information sharing and coordination between cities and countries in pandemic planning, facilitating solutions to different location in a geographical context especially those with weak health systems, and to develop solutions and supporting framework to government and society to mitigate the record spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ng said one of the more interesting points is to look at what is on demand in the grocery stores. There is still lots of some products while other items like toilet paper are difficult to keep on the shelves.
“When it comes to the supply chain, we sometimes need to identify what the priorities are, what are the things not as important, rather than just treating all supplies the same way,” he said.
The long-term impact of this project will help countries like Canada plan their logistics and supply chain in the future to help negate some of the panic and pressure on workers in the supply centres and a warehouses and factories.
This will help make decisions about how to minimize waste when it comes to resources.
Ng reassures people that we are in good shape when it comes to supplies in Winnipeg, however, he urges people to understand how your own actions impact on many, even when it comes to how you buy your supplies.
He said the supply chain is quite delicate and something as simple as a sudden rush increase in purchases — like say on hand sanitizer or toilet paper — will collapse or disrupt it. To prevent this, however, there is a simple solution: do not do anything.
“One of the best ways to help to relieve this problem is to try to live as normal as possible and then a lot of these things we will be able to sort out,” he said.
Twitter: @JoshAldrich03
