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John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | October 01, 2020
The third presenter, Roland Chong, head of global supply chain processes and trade management for molecular testing solutions provider QIAGEN, said that testing during the pandemic generated more biological data in six months “than in all of prior history.”
“(COVID-19) is continuous and really unprecedented. Only in moments of crisis do you realize you have an organization that is integrated, that is coordinated at a global level," Chong said. "It has really provided insight for us,"
One of QIAGEN's first actions was to establish a global leadership task force to cut across the entire supply chain — including procurement, manufacturing, planning, distribution to warehousing. He also said they focused on their top 20 highest-demand products, rather than trying to manage their entire product line.
Chong stressed that leveraging existing supply chain relationships for collaboration and engagement helped with addressing supply chain material shortages.
He anticipates that medical suppliers will be dealing with COVID-19 for the next 24 months. While not all supply chain problems can be immediately corrected, there are valuable lessons to be learned in preparing for the next public health crisis, he said.
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