The day their school district reported its first coronavirus case, five teenagers from Alpharetta, Georgia, decided they could help with the response.
One of the 16 year-olds, Shourya Seth, heard that evening from his cousin, an Atlanta doctor who had been wearing the same N95 mask for a week. Hospitals and communities were woefully underprepared to face the pandemic, and stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) were limited.
Five months later, Seth and his colleagues are running ProjectParalink, an incredible production and distribution network that is getting PPE into the hands of hospital systems and essential workers at a faster pace than FEMA in Florida, Georgia, and Texas. We tell their story in our Forbes column here.
More than just a feel-good story of teenagers devoting their summer to public service, Paralink’s processes may change the way we consider supply chain management during a pandemic, says Georgia Tech associate professor of operations management, Karthik Ramachandran. Read more about Paralink and its impact on supply chain management at the above link.