We have become accustomed to getting what we need on time, whether it comes from Sweden or not. The pandemic, with its closed borders, was therefore a rude awakening.
"We must now do everything we can to ensure that everything we need is available in Sweden, even in the event of a crisis. We need innovation and access to product testing," says Benny Lyvén from RISE.
It's hard to forget the news from March 2020. How the virus spread to more and more countries, how more and more people fell ill, how the first cases were finally detected in Sweden. But the coverage also included the shock of the shortage of essential medical supplies, how the surge in consumption depleted stocks. Face masks and protective aprons were running out, and critical medicines were being rationed. Things didn't get any better as one border after another closed, cutting off vital global logistics chains and bringing in substandard products. In the end, laid-off Volvo workers, for example, made makeshift visors out of plastic film so that the health system would at least have something. One of many examples of how Swedish companies have reorganised their operations to provide essential products.
Regulatory reform to strengthen Sweden's resilience
This was certainly not an optimal situation, and in October 2022, a reform of civil defence and crisis preparedness authorities came into force. It aims to strengthen the country's resilience in peacetime crisis situations, heightened preparedness and ultimately war, and the reform designates sixty government agencies as 'preparedness authorities'. They are particularly important to society's civil preparedness and must be able to withstand threats and risks, prevent vulnerabilities, manage peacetime crisis situations and fulfil their roles in a heightened state of alert.
One of the areas these authorities need to review is the availability of critical products and materials.
"It is extremely difficult to supply a society if you are not prepared for the fact that imports can sometimes be negatively affected," says Benny Lyvén, Business Developer at RISE.
The department he works in deals with issues related to the supply of resources, materials and products.
"We work with prevention and help companies and public authorities with proposed solutions for production, materials and production conversion," says Christina Jönsson, SVP at RISE.
By applying the knowledge and infrastructure we already have in a new way, we can help the Swedish authorities in the event of a crisis
Assessing which products are important for operations
Together with the Swedish authorities, RISE is evaluating, for example, which products are important for a company to be able to operate during a crisis, and how these products can be secured even if there is a sudden loss of imports.
"For Sweden as a country to be able to cope with this, innovation and new solutions are needed, and this is something we all need to work on more," says Benny Lyvén.
"Also, in a crisis we need someone who can test products. If, in an emergency, you are making new products with new materials with very little experience, you run the risk of creating a crisis in the crisis if you do not test before you launch. Otherwise, you run the risk of filling the system with inferior products that only create worse problems.
Authorities and RISE can work together to develop support and tools to get a process up and running, even if the authority does the inventory and needs assessment itself. RISE helps with the next step: to see how a particular product on that list can be secured.
"For example, we can analyse existing value chains and suggest alternative variants, investigate whether there are existing domestic products that can meet the same needs, or whether it is possible to start domestic production or secure the supply of materials for products," says Christina Jönsson.
Can assess which parameters are critical in a crisis
RISE's testing facilities and knowledge of most industries are therefore an asset to authorities who need to ensure that a replacement for an existing product is developed quickly.
"We have extensive experience of testing and trials, but we also do a lot of work evaluating which parameters within a specification need to be maintained in a crisis, and which requirements can be ignored and still have a sufficiently good product," says Christina Jönsson.
During the pandemic, this became a crucial aid for many authorities and industries, and now RISE is working with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, among others, to help more parts of society prepare for this type of event.
"By applying the knowledge and infrastructure we already have in a new way, we can help the Swedish authorities in the event of a crisis, while at the same time contributing to increased learning through the process itself, so that they themselves gain more knowledge about how such processes can work," says Christina Jönsson.
