Supply chain issues strike during holiday season

Supply chain issues strike during holiday season

As we enter these winter months, worker shortages and the on-going pandemic are sadly impacting domestic and international manufacturing, shipping, and distribution. Unfortunately, here are few signs that this situation is going to improve in the immediate future. With this in mind, the team at Link-age Solutions is committed to providing you with as much information as we can to allow you to react and plan for current and upcoming issues in an informed manner. In combination with our supplier partners, we are here to help you and your team find solutions to your supply chain related challenges.

Here are some ways that we are trying to assist our members:

  • Our dining customers are facing a number of supply chain related issues dealing with a growing demand for many products. Link-age partners are also facing labor shortages with that are impacting the timeliness of deliveries. Fortunately, dining distribution partners Sysco and Gordon Food Service and rebate partner Foodbuy all publish periodic supply updates that provide valuable information about current and projected shortages. We encourage members to use this information to plan for outages and we also encourage members to use this information to plan for upcoming menu updates. Many of these shortages are predicted to be longer term in nature.
  • The Dining Team at Link-age, Jim Norris and Lori Buik, are always available to assist members with finding suitable substitutes for hard-to-source items and with trying to identify more budget friendly options in this environment of continuingly rising prices. As always, we encourage everyone to order as far in advance as possible and to consolidate deliveries as much as possible. Doing so increases your chances of getting your delivery in a timely fashion and as a side benefit, it will help to increase your drop size incentive from your distributor. We also encourage our members to work with their distributors in a proactive fashion. If you need any assistance with your distribution partners, Jim and Lori will do their best to assist you.
  • Beyond dining, the team at Link-age and our supplier partners are willing to work with you and your team to make your supply chain issues more manageable. Many organizations are increasing their inventory par levels for key items. The Link-age Team and our Supplier Partners will assist you with setting your par levels and with updating your order guides. The Link-age team will also do its best to identify substitute items for out of stock items and we will also help you to identify alternate suppliers for products if needed. As with dining, we encourage members to order as early as possible and we encourage you to anticipate delayed shipping, particularly as we enter the Holiday Season. If you need assistance with any non-food issue, please reach out to your Supplier Partner first. If they cannot resolve your problem please reach out to your Link-age Account Manager, or Debbie Hounshell for additional assistance.
  • It always makes good sense to have back-up suppliers for your key supply and service needs. In current times, it is even more important to have reliable back-up relationships. Your Link-age Account Manager can assist you with finding possible back-up relationships within our expanding portfolio of contract offerings.
  • While not a direct response to supply chain issues, Link-age offers a number of contracts that can assist your organization with mitigating the financial pressure that is a direct result of the supply chain issues. Your Link-age Account Manager can assist you with determining what solutions best fit the needs of your organization. Please reach out to Debbie Hounshell, at dhounshell@linkageconnect.com, to reach your Account Manager.

No one has an easy solution to all of the supply chain issues that we are facing, but if we work together, we can make coping with these issues easier. Thanks for your continued support of Link-age Solutions!

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