No matter how optimistic the vaccine predictions were at the beginning of the pandemic, the world seems to still be far from recovering from the coronavirus and all its effects. In fact, we are now in the midst of the second wave. Hence, it is important we buckle up and adjust our lives to overcome this struggle effectively.
While the first wave of the coronavirus hit the world like a truck, with no one being prepared to react promptly (only a few had a decent contingency plan in action) and efficiently, now we know what to expect and are ready to battle against the circumstances. Throughout the pandemic, the business world has been repeatedly reminded of how fragile its supply chains are. Even though world logistics had previously seemed to be robust and well-established, the global lockdowns have exposed the real state of it.
China, which was first hit by the coronavirus and forced to shut down, is the global center of manufacturing. Many international supply chains have major links in China: “More than 200 of the Fortune Global 500 firms have a presence in Wuhan, the highly industrialized province where the outbreak originated, and which has been hardest hit.” When China went into quarantine and closed its borders, a lot of stalling occurred. Many business processes were paralyzed with no alternative solutions arranged in case of an emergency like that. Once powerful companies have found themselves trapped.
However, it is not only about the ability to produce goods, it is also about the ability to meet the demand for them. Consumer behavior has changed over the pandemic period due to severe changes in the needs and wants of people as well as their shopping styles. Large corporations were merely unprepared to meet the increased demand for products that had never been popular among customers before. In fact, some industries have seen an increase in demand and, therefore, sales five times the yearly predicted in less than a month at the beginning of March.
In order to survive the new realities, businesses had to quickly optimize their COVID-19 pandemic response by adopting new supply chain resilience and agility capabilities. The four most effective strategies have proven to be the following: elimination of information delay, automation of routine processes, real-time data visibility, and unity of the workflow.
Elimination of Information Delay
The first strategy that has shown positive results in combatting the adverse consequences of the pandemic and adjusting the business to the new realities is the elimination of information delay.
One of the biggest reasons for productional stalling was the inability of businesses to communicate with each other effectively. With demand being so unpredictable at times, it is absolutely important you can reach out to all the links of your supply chain immediately to discuss new arrangements and implement the adjusted plan quickly.
If you could eliminate the delay in passing the information about demand and supply changes throughout the supply chain at each tier of it, you could react to the aforementioned changes quicker and with fewer losses.
One way to do that is to establish a ‘hotline’ that would be available to all parties along the supply chain. You need to make sure all partners – both suppliers and their suppliers, too – have a trusting relationship with each other and are willing to cooperate.
Automation of Routine Processes
Another thing that helps immensely in overcoming the adverse results of the coronavirus is the automation of routine processes. In times of uncertainty, you need to make sure you have as much time to solve important problems on your hands as possible.
According to a Harvard Business School professor Willy C. Shih, “Consumers will continue to want low prices (especially in a recession), and firms won’t be able to charge more… The pressure to operate efficiently and use capital and manufacturing capacity frugally will remain unrelenting.” This implies that your main human resources should be used up in developing a new sales strategy and customer relationship management. It is important to ensure your products/services have maximum added value so that they would be viewed as worth paying more in the eyes of your customers.
One way to free up the professionals with the appropriate expertise is by delegating the more down-to-earth tasks to machines. Besides, if you could employ machinery and software to run basic operations such as perform predict problems, rank choices, and run optimizers, you would be able to further amp up the agility and lower the costs of your business’ logistics. Artificial Intelligence is capable of using prescriptive analytics to find solutions sooner, which is an important factor to gain a competitive advantage.
Real-Time Data Visibility
One of the most obvious solutions for the given problem is ensuring real-time data visibility. However, not all businesses have gotten this memo! If you give all the members of your team as well as your supplier’s accurate information about all your shipments, where they are, and how they will be processed, you can match supply and demand easier. Accommodating this is likely to result in increased service levels, fewer expedites, and lower costs.
To ensure this, you could invest in a CRM system (HubSpot, NetHunt CRM, Salesforce, Streak, etc.) that would help you with communication management. While CRM systems are traditionally used to manage relationships with customers, they can also be utilized for organizing the relationships between suppliers. A database of all interactions that gives access to relevant, up-to-date information about the current processes and status of different shipments in real-time is a powerful tool on the way to combatting post-pandemic supply chain disruptions.
Unity of the Workflow
At last but definitely not at least, it is essential all the parties involved are making records in the same system and use the same format to store the records made. You have to implement a single platform so that none of the data ended up being lost or incomplete. This way, everyone involved in the supply process will have an opportunity to share plans and forecasts, orders and shipments, inventories, and ETAs.
Just make sure everyone has a clear understanding of how to run the system as it is vital for the success of the strategy to eliminate even the slightest possibility of recording flaws and errors.
The pandemic will eventually go. No matter how tired we are of the restrictions and lockdowns, we need to use this time to our advantage and improve our processes. The COVID-19 has indicated the thin areas of our businesses and pushed us towards active actions aimed at improving the supply chain resilience and agility capabilities. Chances are, the company that has adopted the new strategies will carry them into the post-pandemic world. Hence, if you still have not done this, start working on it immediately! Then and only then will you be able to remain competitive and keep your market share.
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Daniel Witman is a passionate journalist who has contributed to major media publications. He enjoys writing about eSports and other topics that bother modern men. Currently, he’s serving as an editor for dota2-bets.net.
