Warehouse Under Water: Promised Delivery is Compromised

Abstract

The recent hurricane has hit your warehouse facility. Your inventory and shipping have been affected. Orders are being delayed by weeks, even though specific dates have been promised and your company is known for its customer service and on-time delivery. It is your job to communicate this information to the media and to your customers.

***

Katy Wilderom sat in her boarded-up house waiting for the hurricane to stop. Her dog was snuggled next to her on the couch as she read her Kindle by the light of a candle. About two hours into Hurricane Joan, Katy had completely lost power. The first thing she did was break out the pint of ice cream she had sitting in her freezer.

Although her power was still out, she had an emergency handheld device that could keep her cell phone powered during those rare situations when she lost power. Katy was the chief operations officer for Sema-Tech, a laptop manufacturer. Her primary responsibility was the company’s warehouse facility, which was located right on the Gulf of Mexico. For a second she worried about the warehouse, but she knew Daniel Simpson, her second in command, was overseeing the warehouse while she was stuck at home during the hurricane.