What lies beyond the Pandemic – A look at supply chain resilience

The world came to a standstill as the global pandemic led to the closing down of international borders. The unprecedented event brought up various challenges, from adjusting to the Covid-friendly norms or even ensuring the health and safety of the workforce while ensuring business continuity. Enterprises along with their organizational functions were widely affected, impacting the supply chain visibility and supply chain network.

The lack of resilience in the supply chain of all industrial units thus became more prominent. However, this could be considered a boon, only if dealt with correctly. But how?

Organizations could leverage this scope to target the operational deficits and fulfill the missing pieces through a thorough readjustment of the supply chain. To put it more simply, the firms, now more than ever, have the perfect opportunity to implement contingency methods and create a sturdier supply chain, mitigating any recurrent challenges. To garner a better understanding of this topic, let’s get into details.

The Expose

The global pandemic gave us the time and opportunity to introspect the traditional ways of the supply chain that failed us. Leveraging innovative methods has become the need of the hour. Enterprises that leveraged emerging technologies earlier on not just survived the pandemic but also thrived during the unprecedented times. However, for some enterprises, the pandemic exposed some grave shortcomings in supply chain management globally. Here are some of the limitations of the traditional ways that led to enterprises falling beyond recuperation.

With various restrictions exercised and the movement of people coming to a standstill, the industries suffered from the storage of resources. The entire flow of products thus was sent into a whirlwind, right from manufacturing units to the sales units.

The demand graph saw a swift hike with stock buying and panic all around, while, the supply graph took a deep dive downwards due to inadequate resources. Although some giant moguls upped their product availability during these times, most others faced a hard time keeping up.

The pandemic highlighted the shortage in supply chain visibility in the entire supply chain network. Due to the swift rise or fall in customer demands, inventory management saw several problems arising. This exposed the issue of deliberately creating a shortage of products to accelerate demand by many firms.

The lockdowns restricted the movement of goods and people, thus hindering the flow of the organizational operations. The lack of conjuring resources from the local sources was thus entirely exposed as it impacted the entire supply chain network.

How can we overcome these issues?

Here are some steps we could take to help with a more resilient global supply chain, capable of withstanding even an adverse situation such as the ongoing global pandemic.

Increased diversity

When the global factory, China came under the radar and was shut out by the rest of the world, a need for diversification of the supply units emerged. This will result in lesser dependability on them mitigating a grave problem.

Decentralization of manufacturing units

The firms have already adopted this trend alongside deploying the boons of technology, like automation and well-assessed production in smaller batches to cut costs on wastage.

Enhanced supply chain visibility

The only way to mitigate the challenge of minimum transparency along the supply chain is to increase visibility. Transparency has evolved as one of the top trends over the last decade, and the pandemic proved it to be the need of the hour. A transparent supply chain network becomes more resilient by identifying in advance any disruptions and strategically planning the contingency moves.

Localizing supply sources

This will encourage the local economy and acquire resources efficiently. In terms of future resilience thus, the supply chain networks can efficiently work with the local sources without disrupting the operational flow.

Going digital

In this age of rapid digital transformation, going digital is more of an immediate necessity than an option for all industries and processes. The supply chain is no exception to this change. Digitization of the supply chain networks will increase supply chain visibility. At the same time, automation will streamline the workflow making it more effective and flexible. It can thus be carried on even from the safety of one’s house and helps develop a resilient supply chain network.

How can EdgeVerve’s TradeEdge help?

TradeEdge offers a comprehensive solution that enables enterprises across industries to empower their end-to-end supply chain capabilities. TradeEdge aims to create a connected and cognitive supply chain experience, thereby ensuring supply chain resilience and visibility readjusted to meet the demands and scope of the post-COVID world.

Over the last decade, TradeEdge has assisted 25+ global enterprises and Fortune 500 companies encompassing CPG, F&B, pharmaceuticals, apparel, beauty, and technology industries in their journey towards a cognitive supply chain experience funded upon connectedness. To know more, click here.

Conclusion

While time always heals everything, it is better to stay ahead of the times to survive and stay resilient during difficult times. All said and done, with the new normal gradually setting in, the enterprises have identified and adopted various new and innovative methods, with a noticeable increase in the supply chain visibility. However, further developments remain extensive as more and more enterprises have started implementing these solutions. Thus, it is safe to conclude that the future of the supply chain network looks quite promising beyond the Pandemic.