Sourcing PPE Supplies under Covid-19

China is the major producer of PPE, so its status as the epicentre of the outbreak put immediate strain on supply chains. Factory shutdowns were accompanied by restricted shipping movements and export bans. Airlines’ carrying capacity was severely constrained and became prohibitively expensive.

With priority rightly given to the NHS, institutions like the University were left to compete for severely curtailed supplies, with global demand for PPE increased by anywhere from 3 × normal (gloves), to as much as 26 × (masks) compared to 2019.

Working together

To address this situation, the Business Continuity Manager, Nikola Brown has been working closely with Procurement and Health & Safety, the objectives being:

a) to establish what stocks exist across the University campuses, and redistribute where necessary and feasible;

b) secure new supplies for the interim period under lockdown;

c) forecast the future burn rate for PPE and prepare for the phased resumption of ‘normal’ research and teaching activities.

The various ordering points such as IGMM, George Square, QMRI, King’s Buildings and Easter Bush have been extremely helpful in identifying stocks and balancing these with areas of high demand (e.g. Covid19 research centres).

Some mitigating factors:

· for ordering points with storage capacity, previous Brexit preparations meant that stocks were reasonably healthy;

· the lock-down had drastically reduced normal usage;

· joint University/NHS CV19 research (e.g. at the Western General) allowed certain facilities to be ‘adopted’ by the NHS supply chain and therefore access priority supplies;

· donations of PPE from the likes of Edinburgh College and elsewhere;

· rapid mobilisation of local production facilities for faceguards and sanitizer, reduced dependency on normal supply chains.

For the immediate future, a bulk purchase of soft face coverings for staff and students is being considered. Meanwhile key items such as nitrile gloves and FFP3 masks remain in short supply. PPE price increases are being unilaterally imposed by our main suppliers, and while we are pushing back on this, institutions elsewhere are accepting them, which inevitably means suppliers will allocate stocks to those other, higher profit, clients.

So the challenge remains for Procurement, in conjunction with Health & Safety and Business Continuity, to work with key suppliers and the APUC consortium, to secure adequate supplies of PPE for both laboratories and Estates. Price, availability, and quality criteria must all be satisfied, while a longer-term appraisal of supply chain resilience takes place. Next up: Brexit