Is SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 on your risk register?

[Tagin]

The potential for supply chain interruptions, potential health impacts to traveling employees, etc. seems more than significant enough to place SARS-CoV-2(i.e., the virus) / COVID-19(i.e, the disease) on many organization's risk register or other risk tracking system.

Have you done so, and how actively are you tracking this issue?

We have been reaching out to our suppliers, several of whom source some or all of their product from China, and most of the responses are a guarded view of "add 2-3 weeks to leadtime", "we are closely monitoring the situation", etc. In turn,we can only supply similarly vague information to our customers.

It's a difficult situation for suppliers to respond to, as they have no crystal ball to help them predict any better than anyone else how this epidemic is going to develop, either toward an R0 below 1 or to a pandemic, or somewhere in-between.

Edit: most of our customer's have strict change control in their design (we do not own the designs) and so it is not feasible to propose any changes to different manufacturers/models, regardless of similarity.

(mods: Not sure what forum to post this in, so feel free to move.)

 

[blackholequasar]

Some of our customers just recently reached out to us to ask us about our disaster relief plan and, to be honest, there really isn't one in place. No better time than the present! We do a lot of business with 3rd party vendors who procure from China, so if anything this may be a wakeup call for folks who could potentially be effected by this.

Since being made aware, we have sent some communications out to our vendors to try and see how it will impact our delivery and customer service.

 

[Johnnymo62]

We use a lot of hardware that originates from China. All of our distributors get hardware from China. It may have a huge impact. We do not have this in our contingency plans.

 

[optomist1]

in automotive environs it is variously called a production interruption..."get well/ production resumption plan", a detailed plan outlining the steps required to resume shipment of parts within XX Hrs from date of incident/disaster....a pandemic may be a subset or special case, but the plan/a plan is required, and is usually reviewed as part of the initial supplier eligibility assessment....or during periodic/annual supplier audits.

 

[Hendor]

A very good topic, which will surely be part of the reviews in certification audits, in many cases.

 

[Marc]

My bet is few companies had global pandemic on their contingency plans until recently. Disaster preparedness, yes.

It is going to have a huge financial impact.

 

[Johnnymo62]

Today our distributor said only one of their five Chinese suppliers have raised a concern. Our distributor is NOT optimistic about the rest staying open.

 

[Johnnymo62]

in automotive environs it is variously called a production interruption..."get well/ production resumption plan", a detailed plan outlining the steps required to resume shipment of parts within XX Hrs from date of incident/disaster....a pandemic may be a subset or special case, but the plan/a plan is required, and is usually reviewed as part of the initial supplier eligibility assessment....or during periodic/annual supplier audits.

How long of a interruption is allowed before you have to re-PPAP? I think Ford was 1 year.

 

[Hendor]

How long of a interruption is allowed before you have to re-PPAP? I think Ford was 1 year.

The PPAP manual mentions that one year.

But, it will be interesting work for many organizations, which will require evidence of the actions taken from unplanned stoppages for the IATF 16949 requirement in 8.5.1.4 verification after a production stop.

 

[Hendor]

I imagine the next issue of Sanctioned Interpretations (SI) for IATF, will be considered in 6.1.2.3 Contingency Plans for Biological Epidemics, ... will consider the impact that CoVid-19 is generating and the effects that can have a worldwide level with the provision of parts, etc.