Supply Chain Year in Review 2009

(SCDigest – Dan Gilmore)

2009: a year to remember, and to forget.

As we look back on the year in supply chain, 2009 was period in which the SCM narrative was joined at the hip with the economic one like no other since the start of “the supply chain” era in the mid-1980s.

The reality is that the recession had already started in 2008, especially in the housing and transport sectors, and then was sent into overdrive by the Wall Street collapse in September of that year.

But 2009 was when we really felt the business pain. Below, I will review some of the supply chain impacts from the Great Recession of 2009.

It was “cut, cut, cut” at many companies. Obviously, a number of SCM professionals lost their jobs just as in every other area of business. Projects were put on hold. A panelist at a “Wall Street meets Supply Chain” session at CSCMP in October told attendees that one large retailer had the opportunity and the cash to pursue a network redesign effort they knew would save the company tens of millions of dollars annually, but the project was delayed this year because the company didn’t want to send the signal that it was spending money when everyone else was hunkering down.

Many companies took the drop in demand to consolidate distribution facilities. We spoke with one publishing company which moved fast when leases were expiring to combine two distribution operations into a third DC – and in the haste, needing to run three totally separate operations and systems in the one building. Read more here.