April 2020

A s manufacturers and retailers run down their ‘pre-Brexit’ stockpiles, pressure on warehouse space in the UK may appear to be tempered for the moment – although there can be little doubt that there will be another ‘cliff-edge’ event at the end of the year as the EU-UK trade talks approach Boris’ deadline. Meanwhile, however, there is a new and very real risk to supply chains from the Covid- 19 pandemic. With the virus having become an epidemic during, and perhaps partly because 10 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk April 2020 Insight Mitigating the risk of Coronavirus to UK supply chains Steve Purvis, operations director at Bis Henderson Space, takes a look at how to mitigate the risk of Coronavirus to UK supply chains. of, the Chinese New Year break, it is too early to quantify likely impacts on production, but ‘not good’ seems a reasonable assessment. The automotive industry, with its tight Just-In-Time operations, is naturally the bell-weather: Hyundai temporarily closed South Korean plants because of a shortage of wiring harnesses, Fiat Chrysler reported that ‘one European plant is two weeks from closure’ because of shutdowns at one critical supplier (and potentially three others), while Ford was airlifting parts out of China while it still can. Regarding UK manufacturers, there are similar reports related to Jaguar Land Rover and JCB too. Other sectors feeling an early impact include pharmaceuticals, where China supplies many drug precursors, fashion, where production for the Autumn season should be ramping up right now, and almost any industry dependent upon electronic components. There are already concerns over goods for the Christmas 2020 market. While some firms had coincidentally built up stocks against the usual Chinese New