How the pandemic has impacted the physical space.

By now we most of us are used to working from home, shopping almost exclusively from home and for the most part limiting our exposure to others to a bare minimum. Granted as more of the United States and Europe start to open, and Asia has already reopened to some degree, we are moving to another phase of dealing with the pandemic. But one aspect that is worth watching, is the usage of physical space within our supply chains. From the factories to the distribution centers to the stores and of course the offices, the physical assets in our supply chains are constantly being reassesses as to how they will be leveraged moving forward. So what should we expect?

• Working from home – once the pandemic hit, many of us were forced to work from home. Unfortunately others lost their jobs, while many essential workers did not have the option to work from home. So what does this mean with regards to office space? Do we need to be physically “together” to work? Reality is – digital has made remote work much more viable well before the pandemic. I remember working at Forrester Research in the late 1990s when we first started looking at remote work. Our first remote worker, set up a video meeting room in his home. It was a large, bulky and expensive set up. But it worked. Fast forward to 2020, as I sit here writing on my MacBook, I have a camera looking at me, my iPad next to me has a front and back camera as does my iPhone. No shortage of tools for video conferencing. We also have Slack, Google Meet, MSFT Teams, Skype to name a few tools to allow communication and collaboration. Oh yeah…and email. Will we go back to the office? Sure. For important meetings, client visits and the free trail mix. But being tethered to a desk from 9-5 was going away prior to Covid, this has just accelerated its demise.
• Going to a store. Much like the office, the physical store has seen traffic slow down to a halt in many cases. Granted, when the government shuts down in person shopping for all but essential retailers – grocery and pharmacies – it is easy to see why stores go dark. The reality is prior to Covid-19, the role of the physical stores was already in question. With eCommerce approaching 20% of overall retail, it became apparent that physical stores and malls had to be redefined in their role within the retail supply chain. Yet it was also clear that physical stores were important, as digitally native retailers such as Bonobos, Warby Parker and the grandfather of all eCommerce, Amazon were all opening up locations. So what will stores look like once we emerge from this pandemic? Experience centers? Inventory hubs? Returns nodes? All of the above. While some might completely abandon their physical presence – see Microsoft. Most other retailers will continue to look to modify their stores. Arguably they will look to enhance the experience portion of their stores, and keep a keen eye towards ensuring safety and hygiene. Some stores will be turned into micro-fulfillment centers or return hubs, allowing for BOPIS, BOPAC and BORIS. The store is not going away, it will change, and it was changing before Covid 19. The pandemic has just accelerated that change.
• Factories and warehouses. At the heart of our supply chains we still have the facilities that have to produce and move our goods. These, for the most part, involve a wide array of people to ensure they function properly. And at times these environments call for people to be physically close to one another, so now what? For example, when it comes to picking in a warehouse operation, humans remain vital to the process. Automation has become an integral part of the process, but the human operator remains key. We have seen evidence of this as through the early stages of the pandemic, large fulfillment operations from the likes of Amazon and Walmart were looking to add to their staff rather than reduce them. The challenge is how to ensure the safest working environment? This is where automation can also play a role. There are device manufacturers who have added features to their equipment personnel leverage in these environments to monitor how close people get to one another, warning them if they stand to close for too long. Automation solution providers can ensure the picking robots keep employees a safe distance from one another. The idea of a dark warehouse or dark factory may still be dancing in the minds of some supply chain professionals, but these might not be feasible nor desired in the long run. But how we ensure our labor is safe within the factory and warehouse is not simple with regards to the machinery and objects but now with regards to their fellow workers. Supply chains will have to take this into consideration in a post-Covid 19 world.

How we start interacting with one another, once we have found a way to manage the pandemic is still “tbd.” But we know that one aspect will be how do we handle the physical spaces that make up our communities. Clearly this will change.