When the NHS came calling back in 2020, asking if we'd get involved with its Covid-19 fightback, there was no hesitation. We're a proud UK company and when that Country asks for help, you don't turn them down, especially not with something as deadly as Covid.
We joined together with Simon Woodward - a brilliant external Supply Chain expert, Anita Jackson - bringing a wealth of NHS clinical and military experience, and Kev Jackson - who had operated supply chains and transformation programmes in Automotive, Aerospace, and Parcel 3PLs, with a brief stint at SCCL.
We worked with external Consultancies - Baringa, Hatmill, Efficio, PA Consulting, as well as the fantastic NHS teams, and we led on creating a Supply Chain that changed on a daily basis up to its launch, was refined with such pace that it would make your head spin, and continued to be dynamic for a little while until it was bedded in. It worked on day one, and continues to work to this day, but it has been refined, continually made better, made more resilient - not by one person, or even one team, but by the combined strengths of all the above groups.
In the early days of lockdown, when people were furloughed, we were working late into the night, meetings at 2am, phone calls at 6am, getting the vaccine out, delivering a supply chain that went from the manufacturers all the way into people's arms. 140 hour, 7 day working weeks were the norm. Time became irrelevant - who people worked for became irrelevant - we were a team on a mission, and nobody stopped until we delivered.
So last night, all those teams met for the very first time, at the Supply Chain Excellence Awards in London. Friendly banter continued, drinks flowed, hugs were exchanged.
We walked away with 3 awards - Supply Chain Operations - Process award, were highly commended in the Public Sector Supply Chain Excellence award, but the most important one was the one we felt that had our name on it was the Team of the Year Award. It DID have our name on it, and the trophy itself meant much more than a piece of metal. It was recognition that collaboratively we can achieve anything. It was worth the 2am meetings, the 140 hour weeks, and the challenges that we faced. The group that went up on stage were probably from 5 different Consultancies as well as the NHS, but TOGETHER, we are unstoppable. TOGETHER, we did, and continue to do something amazing. I'm proud of that.
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