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The Redelivery of 9,000 Packages

Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management redirected and stored packages bound for campus buildings without staff on-site to accept delivery

Left to right: Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management team members Ajia Veras, Donna Neal and Tonya Oakley sort packages meant for Duke's campus. Photos courtesy of Mary Crawford.
Left to right: Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management team members Ajia Veras, Donna Neal and Tonya Oakley sort packages meant for Duke's campus. Photos courtesy of Mary Crawford.

After stay-at-home orders in March, a perplexing issue arose: what to do about the many packages bound for campus buildings without staff on-site to collect them? 

Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management developed a 2,000 square-foot centralized hub in one of its Durham facilities to receive and store the deliveries. 

Since March, Procurement and Supply Chain Management team members have helped redirect and re-distribute nearly 9,000 packages for non-patient care operations, with about 500 packages remaining for employees to collect at the Golden Drive warehouse. 

Mary Crawford, Duke’s senior director of procurement and supply chain.“Overnight, campus buildings locked and we had to quickly devise and implement a plan since no one was on-site to receive these shipments,” said Mary Crawford, Duke’s senior director of procurement and supply chain. “We didn’t know what to expect. We did not want these packages returned to sender, or we risked interruption of important research and student and employee needs.” 

Preparation began with daily phone calls and emails to carrier companies such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and DHL to let them know to deliver items to the warehouse on Golden Drive. Carriers then notified their drivers and dispatchers of the new delivery address.  

After the initial outreach, Adam Barnes, senior sourcing manager for Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management, set up weekly check-ins with building directors at Duke schools, departments and units to understand whether buildings were open or closed. As buildings slowly reopen, Barnes communicates changes with carrier companies so they can resume deliveries on campus.   

“I remain amazed at how everyone was willing to operate on the fly,” Barnes said. “Every opinion mattered. Every idea was heard. We all understood that one person didn’t have the answer, but a group could put our brains together and find a solution.”

Newly-arrived packages are ready for sorting at Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management's off-campus facility.At the warehouse on Golden Drive, staff members developed an inventory system to store redirected deliveries. They created a spreadsheet, entering the date a package arrived, the Duke employee, building and department to contact for re-delivery, the package tracking number and original delivery address. If staff can’t determine the contact for a package, they reach out to building managers and other occupants to help identify the recipient.

“We started by tracking everything by hand as we were unaware of what to expect,” Crawford said. “We quickly realized this was a long-term need. After a few weeks, we converted the data to Excel. The list was changing too frequently to track by pen and paper. Thankfully, we got some help.”

From March to early May, Procurement and Supply Chain Management received about 100 packages daily of items. Deliveries have dropped to about 35 daily as employees return to work on-site and re-occurring orders are canceled. 

Units such as Duke Finance, Duke Campus Mail, the School of Medicine and Duke University Press stepped in to assist Procurement and Supply Chain Management with redeployed staff assistance, space and bulk collections.

Duke Campus Mail and Procurement and Supply Chain Management set up another system for all deliveries bound for residence halls. They were instead taken to the Bryan Center, where students could collect packages. 

About 500 packages still need to be collected at Duke Procurement and Supply Chain Management’s warehouse.The School of Medicine donated three refrigerators and two freezers to store deliveries that needed to remain cold. Duke University Press provided space in their separate warehouse to store packages Procurement and Supply Chain Management received that no one has picked up. 

“We had some tremendous help to ease the burden off our shoulders,” Barnes said. 

About 500 packages remain to be picked up at Procurement and Supply Chain Management’s warehouse on Golden Drive. If you think you’re missing a package, check here. If you see your item, write deliveryinquiries@duke.edu and list the reference number associated with the package. 

Many older packages have been placed in storage and pick-up will need to be coordinated in advance.

Help share the proactive and extensive work being done by all Duke community members during the COVID-19 outbreak. Send ideas, shout-outs and photographs through our story idea form or write working@duke.edu.