TP was in short supply during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but IPA wasn’t far behind—no, not India Pale Ale, isopropyl alcohol—and that shortage caused major headaches for chemical suppliers determined to get hand sanitizer out the factory door and into the hands of consumers in the US and around the world.
 
Complex supply chain issues were the focus of a session during the American Cleaning Institute’s Virtual Summit. The session, moderated by ACI’s Brian Sansoni, included insights from Luc Reynaert of Procter & Gamble and Scott Leibowitz of Brenntag North America. Though both executives and their companies represent different links in the supply chain, they shared similar opinions on several issues that hampered chemical delivery and production during the early days of the pandemic.
 
Reynaert, VP-product supply, fabric care, P&G, told Sansoni that there was no playbook to deal with the crisis, as the situation changed every day and devolved rapidly. 
 
“We kind of find ourselves writing and rewriting the playbook every day, actually,” he admitted. 
 
The typical P&G playbook explains how to handle force majeure due to floods, hurricanes, and even the occasional volcano—all relatively local events that damage specific regions. In contrast, COVID-19 affects not just P&G manufacturing sites, but every aspect of, and everyone in, the supply chain—from how P&G works with suppliers, to how it transports materials, to how it manufactures products, to how it works with retailers to ensure that consumers continue to buy Tide detergents and Mr. Clean hard surface cleaners (not to mention Charmin toilet paper).
 
“We never encountered such a broad global disruption that affected all the industries in such a short period of time,” recalled Reynaert. “It’s kind of a perfect storm that was created, and everyone in that storm reacted differently. Every government acted differently. Our customers around the world acted differently. So, if you put it all together, it was the perfect roller-coaster ride.”
 
A roller coaster ride that created spikes in demand the likes of which were never seen before. While some markets were completely shut down, others experienced just small interruptions.  
 
“It was quite interesting, but there was no playbook; we created a playbook,” he said.
 
Leibowitz agreed, noting that every day brought new interruptions to Brenntag’s supply chain. When the company placed orders with its suppliers, there were delays in confirmation; at the same time, there were tremendous spikes in demand for materials that were never seen before; meanwhile, demand for some materials slipped. For Brenntag, it was a daily effort to make sure there were no gaps.
 
“The big thing that we learned more than anything else is that communication is key,” recalled Leibowitz, VP-sourcing and product management, Brenntag North America. “Even when you don’t have the answers, that’s a better answer than not communicating anything at all!”
 
 
Surprises Galore
 
The pandemic created plenty of surprises up and down the supply chain. For Reynaert, the speed with which the pandemic moved and the different ways governments reacted was eye-opening. But the most pleasant surprise was the way employees upped their game to tackle the pandemic.
 
“They wanted to do what was right for themselves, the business and for our consumers,” he recalled. “It was incredible to see the commitment, communication, drive and energy. It went above and beyond anything that I have seen in my 32 years with P&G.”
 
For example, when restaurants were closed, P&G employees spontaneously supplied food and drink to drivers who arrived at manufacturing plants. Similarly, employees voluntarily came to work to produce hand sanitizer for the local community, and management stepped into operations to work production lines to fill the void due to employee illness. Reynaert said the speed with which P&G made decisions and the agility the company developed during the pandemic was eye-opening, too, and he predicted that the learnings brought on by COVID-19 will propel the company in the future.
 
Leibowitz noted how quickly Brenntag North America transformed from an office environment to a home environment while satisfying the needs of its suppliers and customers. 
 
“If you had asked me before the pandemic if we could have 80-90% of our workforce work from home and still have the service that everyone expected of us—not just us, any distributor—I would have said that is impossible,” he said
 
Leibowitz recalled a conversation that he had four or five years ago with a newly hired Millennial employee in customer service who asked if he could work from home. Leibowitz refused the request, explaining that Brenntag’s business model requires employees to be close to operations.
 
“This proves that being forced to open up the lines of communication, the lines of thought, the different ways of doing business,” he told Sansoni. “It breaks down some of those barriers that prevent you from moving forward.”
 
In the same vein, the executives expect business travel to be forever altered. Prior to the pandemic, Reynaert traveled 60-70% of the time. Leibowitz predicted that when more people get the vaccine there will be a rush to get back on the road for some face-to-face meetings, but ultimately, balance will come into play.
 
“Do I really need to make that back-and-forth trip? It’s brutal on the body, brutal on the family,” he said.
 
Furthermore, company bean-counters will want to know if the trip pays for itself from a business perspective. Leibowitz even pointed to research that found people who work from home are working longer hours than when they were in the office.
 
 
Keep It Clean
 
Turning to fabric care and high demand for cleaning chemistry around the world, Sansoni asked what specific challenges did the fabric care business overcome? Reynaert immediately pointed to the ethanol shortage and Leibowitz added that the availability of disinfecting actives impacted his company right away. 
 
“Everyone was looking for IPA, ethanol and other disinfecting active to put in their formulas. When you had the product available, we had to make sure we had inventory,” recalled Leibowitz. “We put in protocols to protect our long-term partners—the ones that we have been working with, cultivating and working with different chemistries. We had to be clear on supply too. We couldn’t promise X and deliver Y.”
 
Further complicating the supply chain was the fact that just because a purchase was made, it didn’t ensure a product got delivered. Staffing shortages impacted every player up and down the supply chain. Therefore, Leibowitz reiterated, communication was critical. 
 
 
Lessons Learned
 
Now, one year after the pandemic shut down the US economy, both Procter & Gamble and Brenntag North America are better prepared for another mega-crisis. Reynaert said three key learnings have emerged: people, relationships and agility. He said the pandemic created an enabled, empowered organization that Procter & Gamble had never seen before. At the same time, P&G partnered with suppliers and governments more closely than ever before to ensure delivery of material and to keep essential businesses open. Finally, the pandemic made Procter & Gamble, the largest fast-moving consumer goods company in the world, more agile than ever. 
 
“We have to be more proactive to anticipate what tomorrow will bring,” he explained.
 
Leibowitz called 2020 a year of learning, with perhaps the most important lesson being to trust the organization.
 
“We have leaders deeper than anyone could have suspected,” he concluded. “We let leaders lead and we will be stronger for the next one [crisis]. We will be prepared.”