Innovative Sourcing of Janitorial Supplies Strengthens Dyno Nobel Procurement Team
“Who would have thought that sourcing janitorial supplies would become the quest for the Holy Grail?” said Tracy O’Connor Mathiason, Director Operational Procurement for Dyno Nobel Americas.
Within days of the first COVID-19 cases affecting Americans; toilet paper, disinfectant wipes, cleaners, hand sanitizer and N/95 masks flew off store shelves. The same story pretty much across the world. Our suppliers had limited stock with long lead times. We couldn’t even get supplies from Amazon, unless we wanted to wait until the end of May for delivery!
With the safety of our front-line employees being our Number One priority, we needed a method to have visibility on what, how much and where supplies were in greatest need. To address this, we launched a COVID-19 purchasing process, wherein, our HSE field partners and buyers populate a register for various categories of products. Having visibility has allowed us to pool our resources and expand our sourcing footprint.
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Procuring hand sanitizer has been one of the more inventive sourcing processes we have embarked on.
Not being able to get this through the traditional methods, we, needed to be innovative. As soon as we heard that small distilleries were stopping production of Vodka, Gin and Whiskey to make hand sanitizer we were on it!! This has been a great success for us with Karen Bingham & Sharon Vidaurreta getting enough to cover their sites and Seth Chenault getting enough to cover several sites. Along with other resourceful methods of purchasing gallons of this ‘liquid gold’ all DNA sites will be provided.
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| LOMO site labelling 4 oz. bottles filled with gallon jugs |
Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know. Which was the case with Lysol Wipes. Chenell Negrete, Purchasing Team Lead happened to know an employee at a manufacturing facility that made them and by reaching out we were given a half pallet at no cost!!!
Another instance of this is Lori Murphy knowing a gentleman that is making 3D masks. Lori had these reviewed with HSE and legal. While these can’t replace N/95 masks they have been approved as comfort masks.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the use of cloth face coverings, we were quickly able to have several seamstresses across the country sewing madly away for us. Sue Keenan in Simsbury, Connecticut (SICT) has our Jelly bag supplier sewing some along with a local quiltmaker. Karen Bingham in Graham, Kentucky (GRKY) has two seamstresses working on enough cloth face coverings to meet the requirements of several sites.
David Teller in Michigan, Adam Erickson out of San Antonio, Tyler Bench, Blake Cecil and Rachell Randall out of Salt Lake City and a special shout out to Leslie Pyper, Ashley Hale and friends who are donating masks to us.
These are challenging times, but also a great opportunity to see the commitment to teamwork that the DNA Procurement team shares. Our team in Mexico, Abraham Gonzalez, Lourdes Rivera and Colin Rodriguez have helped us source masks and hand sanitizer. Sam Tuiolemotu continues to source supplies across Canada and Michael Alderman has a close eye on supply delays and alternatives for critical spares in SICT.
Tracy O’Connor Mathiason
Director Operational Procurement