Planet Innovation co-CEO and co-founder Stuart Elliott described the COVID-19 pandemic as a “wake-up call” for how medical products are sourced, in an interview with ABC Radio.
Speaking with host Virginia Trioli on Wednesday morning, Stuart said the pandemic had created a permanent shift in how businesses and governments think about supply chain resilience.
“I think this pandemic has been a wake-up call for businesses to say, ‘Can we rely on a single supply chain? Whether it’s out of China or some other country—I don’t think it’s specific to one particular country—if I’ve got one part of a really key product that comes out of any country, is that a sensible thing to do?’ And I think everyone’s woken up to the fact that the answer is no,” Stuart said.
“What we’re really seeing from a business point of view is CEOs saying, ‘I need a really robust dual or multi-source supply chain for my products so that I can distribute them around the world.’”
Stuart said Australia’s separation from most of the world is an advantage if companies are looking for alternative suppliers outside their main geographic regions.
“I’ll give you an example. We’ve just won a contract for a product that was developed in the US, is manufactured in the US, and now they’re looking for a second source of manufacturing, a dual source, so that their company has supply chain resilience.”
Stuart’s comments follow on from a previous interview on ABC Radio in October 2019 where he talked about innovation and manufacturing.
You can listen online to Stuart’s latest interview on the ABC website, starting at 52:45 minutes.
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