Restarting your supply chain after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused supply chain disruptions all over the world. Now that the lockdown is slowly being lifted, you must be trying to resolve the issues that are disrupting your supply chain. However, the menace of the pandemic is far from over. So, there is a need for thinking ahead and recalibrating your supply chain. It will help you secure your business prospects in the immediate future.

Returning to profitability will require higher precision and planning. You will have to process data in real-time for aligning the business with the renewed supply chain. As demand picks up, you will need agile responses to take up opportunities or risk losing out.

In today's post, we are sharing five steps that can help you stabilise the supply chain and deal with all the variables effectively.

A head start in planning

Perform a total review of your inbound and outbound supply chains and understand where things are being held up. Make sure the numbers for your inventory add up. E.g., check for pick orders that might not have been entered or processed in the week before lockdown. Similarly, analyse the work in progress at lockdown for quality and quantity. Moreover, assess the delivery situation thoroughly. International shipment costs might be different than pre-crisis times, and many pockets of the country are still in lockdown and may be causing disruption in goods movement.

Setting aside time and money to overcome these problems and making provisions in advance can give you a head start over your competitors.

Identify the talent you need

The pandemic has redefined how companies work. Therefore, you must identify the skills and roles that are the need of the hour. After that, you can either create a training plan to address the weak points in your team or augment the team with people who have the required expertise.

Here, you should look for talent across industries to recruit the people you need. From a purely supply chain perspective, put your efforts in hiring program managers, supply-chain leaders and supporting executives.

Revamp supply chain relationships

While you have control over the internal processes, pushing for transparency in external processes that connect with your supply chain will be challenging. Hence, start with in-house changes and gradually push your upstream vendors and downstream customers to adopt supply chain reforms. Moreover, you can also look for online alternatives to your existing supply chain structure. E.g., if you own a construction business and are looking for a reliable, transparent electrical supplier, you can reach out to Schneider Electric. As you know, online B2B transactions are transparent and trackable at every point and can help in restarting your supply chain faster.

Prioritise safety

Business compulsions aside, there is a need for adapting your production and inventory management practices to the new reality of social distancing. As you start re-engineering your workflow and production space, make sure that you are adding safety measures at each step. It's also important that your vendors, staff and customers are made aware of these protocols to maximise the safety net around your business premises.

Factor in investment-tradeoff effects