Supply Chain Mapping to Prepare for Future Pandemics – Norwood – – Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy

The COVID‐19 experience demonstrated how little some agribusinesses understood their supply chain. As companies were scrambling to determine how the shutdowns would impact their input suppliers they surely perceived a need to prepare better for future pandemics. This article describes the practice of supply chain mapping, an activity used to better understand the upstream and downstream components of a company’s supply chain. In addition to describing how mapping works, this paper illustrates how mapping can help identify supply chain vulnerabilities and reduce risk. Moreover, it discusses a number of other mapping benefits, including transparency in sustainability commitments and idea generation.