How on earth does a fast food restaurant that specializes in chicken run out of ... chicken?
This week KFC temporarily closed up to 800 stores in the UK and Ireland after a failure in its supply chain for chicken.
KFC had recently switched delivery and logistics suppliers from Bidvest Logistics to DHL. It was a massive win for DHL: Britain is KFC's largest market in Europe, and one of its top five globally. For its part, DHL promised to set "a new benchmark for delivering fresh products to KFC."
A new benchmark was achieved — just not the one either company anticipated. It all fell apart. (The service, not the chicken.)
There's a simplicity to this story that makes it fascinating. No doubt dozens of people were involved in this massive transfer of contract. And no doubt there is a sophisticated explanation for the "operational issues" that DHL cited.
Yet it still went spectacularly wrong. This is a sharp reminder to guard against hubris. If it can go wrong, it will.
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