Think of the last trip you took the family on. Most of us need to dial back to before 2020 because COVID put the brakes on the travel. Let’s stay with the exercise. I would like you to picture yourself packing for the trip. Let’s make it a quick trip. Maybe it’s a weekend skiing up north or a short getaway to the beach. Your suitcase is open on your bed and you’re laying clothes and accessories out for the short trip. A couple of shirts, pants, shoes, toothpaste the essentials right? Deodorant, sunscreen, temperature regulator, dry ice…what? These aren’t normal packing items for you? Well, if you’re packing COVID vaccines for Pfizer then this is exactly what you will need. Lots of dry ice.
Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.
According David Simchi-Levi’s book, The Logic of Logistics, for many companies, to efficiently match demand and supply is key to their success. Failure to do so could lead to loss of revenue, reduced service levels, impacted reputation and decline in the company’s market share. Or in the case of COVID, a continuation of the virus’ potency.
The demand in the United States is – nearly everyone – 330 million. Actually, according to the Center for Disease Control, the country will reach herd immunity when the vaccine is deployed to 75% of the population. Herd immunity is a term used to describe when enough people have protection – either from previous infection or vaccination – that it is unlikely a virus or bacteria can spread and cause disease. This means that nearly 250 million people need to be vaccinated PDQ.
Pfizer, which produces one of the FDA approved drugs, has superior supply chain management to distribute the drugs that we as Developing Resilient Leader can envy in both planning and execution. This process starts at two processing plants in St. Louis and Andover, Mass. The drugs are then sent to be packaged in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Then they go on their wild ride.
First, we should know that the vaccine doses must be kept cold – extremely cold to remain effective. Each of Pfizer’s vials contains five doses, which must be kept at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Once they begin thawing, the doses only last for five days.
The vials fit into pizza box size trays, 195 of them. Five pizza box trays per carton, roughly 5,0000 doses per box. The boxes are then packed with dry ice which protects the temperature for up to 30 days. The boxes get delivered to UPS and FedEx airplanes to fly around the country. However, there are limits on how many boxes each can carry because dry ice is considered a hazardous substance. When it melts there is a risk of carbon monoxide buildup.
The shots then get delivered to “freezer farms”, hundreds of ultra-cold storage units that can each hold up to 48,000 doses. Then, they are loaded on refrigerated trucks and GPS monitored by Pfizer. Further, each box contains a temperature control device to ensure that there is no significant warming.
Here is my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on personal supply chain management. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Plan Travel Logically. You heard it. Plan Travel Logically.
The theory is simple. Really simple, but today I’m going to give you an example of how it doesn’t work. The logic of logistics and the thorough planning performed by Pfizer is admirable and impressive. Every step of their distribution was carefully considered and orchestrated like a symphony orchestra. And it’s a good thing I was playing percussion for that orchestra.
Every year, we took the kids to see both sets of grandparents in Florida over Christmas break. For any parents who are constant listeners, this is no small feat. First, we need to consider how many clothes versus how much laundry we can do over the 10 days with the grandparents. Second, can the kids manage without strollers? Will leashes be sufficient? Third, despite popular opinion, Santa doesn’t just show up on Christmas Eve and place the toys and loot under the tree. No, Santa’s elves need to get to a UPS store three weeks in advance of the big day to make sure that the Bob the Builder, along with his friends Scoop, Muck and Dizzy all get to the Grandma’s house on time. Fourth, we need to plan for travel supplies. Four people, two of which are finicky, ravenous eaters on a 10-hour door to door journey require 38 pounds of liquids and solid food, in variety.
There was one particular Christmas that our planning hit a snag. The kids were 14 and 9, which means that my wife and I were fairly well practiced in in our personal supply chain management to make Christmas the magical experience they’ve come to expect.
We were in our minivan, backing out of the driveway when my wife asked me if I had the plane tickets. (Please note that this was at a time when you actually had to print out plane tickets.) Silly me, I didn’t have the tickets as I left them on the kitchen counter. A sense of relief came over me. Thank you, Dear. Much better to pull back into the driveway than pull the kids out of the TSA security line.
I went back into the house, grabbed the tickets and made one last pit stop. Standing there, I noticed something odd about the tickets. The tickets read that our travel date was Tuesday December 22nd, but today was Wednesday – the 23rd! Oh, snap!
I called my wife from the bathroom, “Honey…we have a little problem…we were supposed to fly to Florida yesterday.” The words she used on me would have put her on Santa’s naughty list for years.
The representative at Southwest Airlines was as sweet as peaches as she told me that my tickets were no longer valid. “Yes, we have seats for today’s flight at the same time as yesterday’s. Yes, you can book those tickets right now and still make the flight. No, there are no credits for missing flights. No, just because there are empty seats on today’s flight doesn’t mean that you can get them for free. Actually, we are no into premium pricing because it’s less than two hours until takeoff.” She was so nice telling me the worst news I could hear.
Twelve hundred dollars and change. Twelve hundred dollars because I did not follow some of the basic tenets of personal supply chain management. According to Simchi, the objective of logistics management is to be efficient and cost-effective across the entire system. The emphasis is not simply minimizing transportation costs or reducing inventory, but, rather on taking a systems approach to logistics management.
Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.