The Upending of the Global Supply Chain

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Because COVID-19 has led to lockdowns, suppliers in the chain are temporarily ceasing production, and logistics providers can no longer transport goods as seamlessly, particularly across borders.

Read more about how to make the global supply chain more resilient.

Other good thought pieces on this important topic:

Coronavirus and Supply Chain Disruption: What Firms Can Learn – which tackles:

Should they [business owners] broaden their supplier choices, or do more local or near-shore sourcing? How much inventory of raw materials, sub-assemblies and finished products should they stock to tide over the crisis?

Coronavirus Is a Wake-Up Call for Supply Chain Management – which covers:

A new breed of services companies can help acquire and analyze supply network data and organize the results in a user-friendly way. Their services typically do not map the supply networks all the way down to raw materials, but they may provide a start. A few of the companies operating in this space include Elementum, Llamasoft, and Resilinc. (Disclosure: One of us, Bindiya Vakil, is the founder and CEO of Resilinc.)

Coronavirus Should Inspire Businesses to Prepare Their Supply Chains for the Future – which covers how:

Companies caught flat-footed should learn their lesson from this crisis and begin making fundamental changes now to prepare their supply chains for future shocks.