18 Event Program | Tuesday , June 14 , 2022 to you a month from now . When you ’ re treating water , people don ’ t want to hear that .”
To address this and not pass all of those higher costs onto customers , Daniel and his team have had to carefully manage the process and identify areas to make improvements .
“ We ’ ve identified where those bottlenecks are and we ’ re investing through capital and technology to ease that and create more efficiencies ,” he says .
Amigo Mobility is also one of the many Michigan manufacturers that has discovered innovative solutions to the ongoing supply chain disruptions . Founded in 1968 and based in Bridgeport , they make motorized shopping carts and other mobility products so sourcing components from their normal suppliers was one of the first issues they encountered , says Jordan Thieme , Amigo ’ s Director of Operations .
“ Since the beginning of COVID-19 , our supply chain has struggled with not one , but many challenges ,” says Thieme . “ Early on in the pandemic , the issue was getting parts from overseas . Then , once our suppliers caught up on
The pandemic was an eye-opener but headwinds are presented every day , and our team focuses every day on how to get better . We manage by using data and facts . We try not to be emotional about the headwinds that are presented . Instead , we ask , ‘ What is the impact ? How are we going to overcome it ? What are we going to do ?’
— Jeff Daniel • PVS Chemicals
production , we couldn ’ t get things on a boat . Then , we couldn ’ t get things off the boat into the U . S . Then , we had trouble finding truckers to get the materials from the port to our facilities . Now , we are struggling to hire enough people to meet the current workload .”
In the face of these challenges , Thieme and the Amigo team recognized they needed to evolve their approach by requiring multiple sources — it ’ s a similar transition that many manufacturers have had to face .
“ Instead of giving 100 percent of our business to one supplier , we now split the business between a few ,” says Thieme . “ We ’ re trying to maintain an 80 / 20 or 70 / 30 ratio , meaning our primary supplier
Continued on page 20 →