Like many businesses during this unprecedented time, our team here at AccuSpeechMobile has been working from home, supporting our heroic supply chain customers as they continue to provide essential services to the world by delivering everything we need during this pandemic. While I have always had a healthy (no pun intended) respect for the companies that use advanced warehouse strategies and technologies, what these companies and people have been doing over the past month has been just immeasurable. While some Amazon employees have clearly been unhappy, most of the folks working at the company warehouses, 3PLs and other inventory movers have been proud of their role in this pandemic and their managers are clearly impressed and proud of the work they are doing under these extraordinary circumstances.
These men and women are working to ensure healthcare workers get their masks and there is food on the table. I still don’t understand the run on toilet paper…don’t these folks get a newspaper anymore? Kidding aside, this situation has made me feel many things, for instance the pride in how the team at AccuSpeechMobile continues to work hard for our customers from their homes, like so many other resellers, hardware vendors and WMS providers. How fortunate I feel to have my entire family home and safe while working diligently at their schoolwork online. But the biggest emotion I have been feeling these days is gratitude.
I’m grateful for the indomitable spirit that mankind has shown to persevere and grateful for the customers, partners and team members that just put their heads down and do what has to be done - because that is who they are. I’m grateful for people wearing masks, staying six feet apart, all while trying to get some exercise and help their neighbors. But professionally, I am grateful for a supply chain, a transportation system and technology that, even when overheated, just comes through over and over again. This ability to keep everyone able to buy what they need, and have it delivered to their homes or grocery stores in the middle of the biggest health challenge of our lifetime astounds me. These professionals have worked tirelessly before this crisis to ensure the workflows were optimized, the technology was in place and their employees were properly trained to face and conquer this challenge. While no one saw this coming, it is beyond impressive the way our manufactures, supply chain and transportation companies have delivered. Pun intended.
Our phones have been ringing off the hook ever since Dr. Fauci intimated that it was possible that another wave of the virus could sweep the nation (or the world) again in the fall. Many of the companies that are customers or were looking to become customers are now planning and scheduling installations to add even more productivity to their existing workflows by using our technology to voice automate their workflows. Never before has the industry been so predicated on productivity and delivery. Companies that have spent years optimizing their work are now showing the world how effective they are as managers and directors, how their tireless work for continuous improvement was not just about cutting another 5% but the principle of seeking out, evaluating and implementing technologies for their true worth to their companies. Many times industries get overlooked because they don’t make movies about them or they aren’t sexy…. supply chain is looking pretty sexy right about now though.
Amidst all the fear and uncertainty that is swirling around us right now, it is heartening to watch companies make and deliver masks, retool production lines for hand sanitizer, provide pizzas to local health care facilities - all knowing there is a possibility of getting sick. There is a scene in Apollo 13 when the worst is finally known regarding the ship’s damage and the NASA director says, “This could be the worst disaster NASA’s ever experienced”. Then Ed Harris, who plays the lead flight director Gene Kranz, straightens his tie and says, ”With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.” That is what this global pandemic challenge is all about and I salute all the folks on the front lines helping people fight this disease, and I also salute all those on the back lines, in the supply chain, helping everybody get through this.
