Here at Panini, teamwork is key to achieving great results. Today we want to shine the spotlight on our Supply Chain Operations department, who certainly plays a crucial role in the Company and has proven more than once that it can do a great job even in times of crisis.
As you all know, in 2020 the world was hit by the COVID-19 emergency, which forced people and companies to completely rethink and reshape their lives. Soon after that, in the wake of the pandemic, among other geopolitical and climatic factors, another crisis hit the semiconductor industry: the microchip shortage crisis.
Because of the shortage of this tiny but crucial component found in almost every electronic device, companies around the world have been forced to change the way they source materials and organize their supply chains.
In this dramatic circumstance, optimization of manufacturing processes has become of a paramount importance. Our Supply Chain Specialists were able to act strategically, managing to find solutions that allowed us not to stop production (apart from the lockdown period, of course).
As we mentioned, teamwork is an essential and they were certainly able to act as a team, by coordinating themselves and the people working in the “Panini ecosystem”.
They were also able to think outside the box and put into practice a strategic plan that consisted of a partial overhaul of processes and diversification of suppliers and orders. For example, one of the strategies implemented was to focus on both Suppliers and Customers to make sure that chips were used more efficiently.
In conclusion, if there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that creative thinking is, in fact, one of the most important "tools" we can use in times of crisis. In fact, it allows us to go down different paths and take on new perspectives.
This is our recipe, simple but effective, and always has been.
