個案總覽

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, countries and corporations are now examining supply chain strategies and aiming to reduce exposure to difficult future global events. While these responsive actions can help companies survive until market conditions improve, further mitigating disruption requires adding flexibility to business processes and product offerings. In the short to mid-term, companies can employ responsiveness and flexibility to enhance their chance of survival. To plan for the impact of disruption, assess how economic and political events, market trends, emerging technologies, or social movements might impact your supply chain. Any potential for a drastic shift in the balance of your bottlenecked vs. redundant resources, along with the potential emergence of new critical suppliers or the disappearance of core customers, warrants planning to take transformative action. When your own resources/assets/expertise become a bottleneck, you need to expand the corresponding resources/assets or acquire additional talent. When your resources/assets/expertise incur more redundancy, and this shift isn’t temporary, resources need to be trimmed. When your supply is the bottleneck and demand is the redundancy, critical supplies need to be rationed according to customer value and urgency. When your demand is the bottleneck and supply is the redundancy, the company might need to adapt like restaurants that started using their supply chains to operate as online grocery stores.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 8B19D011.

In 2018, Restaurant Kazu was operating at near full capacity with long waiting lines. Located in a mixed, high-density neighbourhood in the west end of downtown Montreal, Quebec, the full-service restaurant had been popular with patrons since its opening eight years earlier. However, the owner and chef wondered if he should address the issue of long waiting lines, which could discourage potential customers. If so, what measures could he take to improve the situation, and how cost effective would the measures be? With the start of the peak season only two weeks away, the owner had to make some quick decisions.

In 2018, Restaurant Kazu was operating at near full capacity with long waiting lines. Located in a mixed, high-density neighbourhood in the west end of downtown Montreal, Quebec, the full-service restaurant had been popular with patrons since its opening eight years earlier. However, the owner and chef wondered if he should address the issue of long waiting lines, which could discourage potential customers. If so, what measures could he take to improve the situation, and how cost effective would the measures be? With the start of the peak season only two weeks away, the owner had to make some quick decisions.