RECAP | ROUNDTABLE | Managing the Supply Chain

Participants at Uptime Institute’s May 21st Inside Track roundtable on supply chain issues mostly focused on current supply chain issues. Most of the participants joined the roundtable to validate whether their concerns about supply chain problems were valid. Most learned, somewhat to their relief, that vendors so far had been meeting demands for components and parts needed for maintenance programs. The outlier, a North American colocation provider, reported experiencing long lead times and delays recently even before COVID-19 lockdowns for most equipment, which he said was typical for those building new facilities. These problems, he said, were a problem caused by the rapid build-out of new IT facilities and worsened by a variety of conditions caused by coronavirus and coronavirus precautions.
Uptime Institute senior consultant Naveed Saeed and consultant Eder Gallardo both agreed that the supply chain for IT and data center gear has been stressed, with Saeed suggesting that he believed that the supply issues were cyclical and would ease as suppliers ramp up production to meet demand or the pace of new construction slows. In the short term, however, he also expects that COVID-19 might make the situation worse.
Saeed and Gallardo suggested that all operators take precautions against further supply chain disruptions. Gallardo noted that supply chain issues can be difficult to anticipate. Large vendors may have greater ability to adapt, he noted, because they are likely to have multiple OEM providers.
The US-based colo provider noted that it would remain difficult for anyone to predict disruptions in the supply chain noting that there are many thousands of components to track, many with different suppliers from different locations. As a result, the global reach of COVID-19 poses a real threat as suppliers could be cut off from international shipping, temporarily closed or even bankrupted.
Participants on the panel provided several best practices for managing supply chains. These included regular reviews of inventory, increasing SLAs, developing a good source of work, improved capacity planning and scheduling and evaluating EOPs in the event that critical parts cannot be obtained in time to avoid an outage. Some of these steps were considered to be more effective in normal environments.