INSATIABLE DEMAND

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are in shortage due to a surge in demand because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There is an urgent need for new treatments as the pandemic that has killed 42,000 people globally puts a strain on healthcare systems and wreaks havoc on financial markets.

Studies are underway in a number of countries to see whether hydroxychloroquine and the related malaria drug chloroquine may be effective in controlling the spread of coronavirus, which has led to a surge in demand for the treatments.

The agency has said it was working with companies making generic versions of the drugs to ramp up production.

The unprecedented demand created by the global pandemic is creating shortages for even basic over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol, as supply chains strain from the manufacturers that produce the medications to the wholesalers that deliver them to pharmacies, making it extraordinarily difficult to keep shelves fully stocked for key items in hot zones like New York.

Pharmacies are improvising when they can. City Drug & Surgical in one Manhattan’s neighborhood has been making hand sanitizer since the brand names sold out about three weeks ago. It takes about 40 minutes to make a batch of 24 bottles. They sell out the same day.

The first chamber of Ocado’s robot warehouse system

Just it sounds the swoosh of wheels from 1,100 waist-high cuboid swarm robots, zipping along a grid system the size of several football pitches. The robots collect groceries from crates beneath them, and drop them off at a packing station.

Occasionally they would all simultaneously come to a halt, green lights blinking, awaiting their next command, received via an unofficial 4G network custom-built by Ocado.

Underneath them, side-by-side with humans, another robot consisting of only one arm was being trained to pack the goods gathered by the swarm to fulfil individual orders.

The chill the temperature was to protect the cold food. There’s a good reason why data centres full of computer servers are often built inside icy mountains or under oceans. Electronics get hot.

Ocado is a significant tech firm that has invested millions in developing robotics with the ambition of becoming a people-free platform.

That means that from the moment you place your online order to the moment it arrives at your door (via a driverless van of course), there will be no human intervention.

The plant process 65,000 orders per week.

This technology was described as part-robot, part-phone, because of their 4G communications.

Ocado’s facilities

Makro distribution network

This is a private video, just the ones with the link can see it.

FASHION PUTS ITS LOGISTICAL CAPACITY AT THE SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT

The fashion giant Inditex will donate around 300,000 surgical protective masks to the Spanish state and is exploring giving up part of its textile manufacturing capacity for the manufacture of medical equipment. This week we have studied concepts of distribution networks, but in this post I would like to emphasize that the situation in Spain and in some countries of the world is so critical that the inventory of sanitary material is… COMPLETELY NON-EXISTENT.

Zara returns to its origins, but this time to fight the COVID-19

The production lines work against the clock, countries like China are starting to send quantities of gowns, masks, etc., to Spain, other countries like Italy, despite the aid received, are so many people infected by coronavirus that they do not have enough material to supply all those who need it.

Here is a link to a video of the mask production line:

Complete Automatic Face Mask Production Line

However, other designers integrated in ACME (Asociación de Creadores de Moda de España) such as Andrés Sarda or Dolores Cortés have also ceded their workshops for the production of sanitary ware. All united in the fight against the same enemy.

If you want more information I leave you several links that deal with the subject.

www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20200319/474260118566/firmas-de-moda-ponen-a-disposicion-sus-talleres-fabricar-material-sanitario.html

www.expansion.com/empresas/distribucion/2020/03/18/5e725516e5fdea2c468b45ce.html

Uk, THE NEW LOGISTIC MANUFACTURER AGAINST THE COVID-19

In the midst of panic and confinement situation, measures taken from the government leaders of the different nations, the concern of the British state about a shortage of medical equipment arises, which forces the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to call urgently to the manufacturing industry.

Call for businesses to help make NHS ventilators

The aim is to increase production by making immediate changes to production lines, something that not all companies consider ready. However, time is running out, and every minute is gold, it is wartime, and it has to be made to work.

Ventilators are vital in the treatment of patients whose lungs have been attacked by the infection. The health secretary told that the country currently has 5,000 ventilators but said it would need “many times more than that”.

Interview Health Secretary Matt Hancock

But questions remain over how engineering firms with no experience of producing ventilators will be able start manufacturing the complex medical devices.

The use of NHS ventilators means that twice as much space must be used as usual, in the face of the collapse of hospitals. For this reason, the Best Westen hotel chain has ceded its rooms and other facilities to the government in case they were needed. In short, the United Kingdom wants to be prepared to face this health crisis.

I encourage you to comment on “ingenious” measures with which your countries will be alleviated from the lack of logistics that COVID-19 has created.

And if you are interested in knowing more about the news I recommend the following links and sources of the post:

Why doesn’t the UK have enough NHS ventilators?

www.bbc.com/news/business-51896168

sold out!!!!

In every store, in every community, in every place….from all over the world store there is a key product that rather than seeing that its sales are falling day by day, experience the precise opposite.

Mercadona Perfumery aisle shelves (Valencia) and (Madrid)

They are the famous hand-cleaning gels, already known during the past illnesses: “Bird flu”, or “Ébola”, which are supposed to disinfect and kill the microorganisms they come into contact with. And they are among the first products to be sold out in supermarkets around the world. Currently, with the Coronavirus, the image of empty shelves is an evidence of the social alarm that has been triggered among citizens.

Despite the wide variety of gels offered by supermarkets, the out-of-stock sign is the new double-edged sword for the economy of certain companies.

Hand-cleaning gels (Mercadona)