When the powerful storm hit the Bay Area last month, many businesses and residences lost power. At 9 p.m. on March 23 the outages included buildings containing research labs at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG).

Because the building is not owned or maintained by UC San Francisco, the University wasn’t notified until the next morning. That’s when Brian Smith, senior associate vice chancellor of Research and Infrastructure Operations, made a call to Supply Chain Management’s (SCM) Strategic Procurement Executive Director Andrew Clark and got the ball rolling.

Here’s a timeline of how SCM staff worked together to deliver for the UCSF research community:

• 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. – Following Smith’s call, Clark mobilizes his research and buying teams to investigate and prepare contingency plans. He then notifies Greg Macway, interim executive director of Logistics, that the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) would be activated.
• 9 a.m. – Macway heads to Oyster Point to meet with Logistics managers Mark Choi and Charles Sabia to prepare for possible contingencies while keeping daily operations running.
• 10 a.m. – EOC members review the situation, noting that the PG&E estimate for restoring power was 8 p.m. and sample-storage (freezers) temperatures were rapidly increasing. The decision is made to secure dry ice to stabilize temperatures and act as a stopgap in case power was not restored as predicted.
• 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. – SCM Procurement Analyst Chris Gong works directly with Airgas to prep and order 1,000 pounds of dry ice.
• 11 a.m. – Logistics’ staff Jorge Rivas, Scott Yu and Fred Jones pivot from their regular assignments to be dispatched to Hayward to pick up the dry ice and deliver it to ZSFG.
•  ​11 a.m. – While the Logistics’ team is enroute, costs and demand are reviewed by the EOC, and it is decided to double the volume to 2,000 pounds of dry ice. The drivers wait for the additional dry ice and then head to ZSFG.
• 2:15 p.m. – Logistics’ drivers arrive at ZSFG and assist facilities and research personnel to transport it to all labs as needed.
• 3:30 p.m. – Power is restored to most buildings, with all buildings back online by 5 p.m.

While there were a few key players who jumped into action last Thursday, the success of this effort was not something that just happened. Clark and Dean Shehu, strategic sourcing manager for Research, have executed a multiyear strategy to build relationships with key stakeholders in Research. The level of trust they have built allowed SCM to get ahead of this issue and mobilize our teams. And all SCM staff should be applauded for maintaining daily transactional operations, even when resources were pulled to address this issue.

"When ZSFG lost power, SCM provided critical assistance, both through the official emergency operations response and informal channels because we had the knowledge, resources, skills and relationships to assist," said Justin Sullivan, associate vice chancellor and chief procurement officer. "It is inspiring when our team has the chance to show its capabilities and how much it cares for the people and mission of UCSF. It's clear from the appreciation we've seen that UCSF knows that SCM is a collaborative and trusted partner who can be counted on to deliver when needed most."