The very essence of supply chains is based on the movement of goods and services. Therefore, there\u2019s no wonder it was seriously disrupted by the global pandemic of COVID-19. A couple closed regions and state borders were enough to cause numerous enterprises to be thrown into complete chaos due to supply outages. Production was often stopped altogether, after supplies of needed components were interrupted. Stores were closed due to the measures, some of them quickly turned to online sales.<\/p>\n
Why was the situation challenging even for the enterprises that were able to do business during the crisis? According to the research of the Warwick University, two main factors played a huge role in this happening – initial panic shopping, that made demand prediction harder and the efforts of enterprises to gain a better overview of their supply chains – but that didn\u2019t make it to the phase of standardization, self-learning mechanisms and autonomy.<\/p>\n
In the time of persistent economic growth, enterprises especially focused on their supply chains to become as thin as possible. The objective was quick and cheap supply, which sounds quite legitimate. However, a lot of times, supply chains showed significant vulnerability, beside being thin. They were not able to quickly react to any disruption. However, there are always some risks that can\u2019t be predicted and enterprises should be ready for them. It\u2019s necessary to work with various development scenarios and among other things, secure the supply chain to react appropriately if some kind of unexpected event occurs.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s necessary to find ways to strengthen and increase the endurance of supply chains.<\/span> First of all, revision of the strategy for supplying individual types of items will be needed. The current crisis showed that relying on a single supplier can lead to significant problems. Developing relationships with partners in closser surroundings minimizes potential problems with long distance transport or risk related to restrictions on traffic sources that might not be clear immediately, in the European context.<\/p>\n Technology used for supply chain control is a significant part of this process. If an enterprise is not able to track every detail, how can it react when there\u2019s a disruption? Technology works as a control tower that keeps all the processes on track, offers their visual representation and allows for full understanding of the ongoing processes and their ties. Thanks to technologies, it\u2019s possible to identify problems right in the bud and find appropriate solutions.<\/p>\n When there\u2019s a perfect overview of the ongoing processes achieved, enterprises can implement AI and machine learning in order to tune the whole system to an optimal state. These technologies are able to react immediately and realize optimal strategies without the need for human intervention. AI is able to predict potential risk and disruption and prevent them in an autonomous way.<\/p>\n The current pandemic forced a lot of enterprises to slow down for a while, think about their supplying and in a lot of cases, find out that their supply chains often overpassed the line of thinness. They became vulnerable above all. Too many times, they relied on suppliers using only one resource, distant across half of the planet.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to learn from the mistake and build a much better overview and awareness of potential risks. Enterprises must strengthen their supply chains through suitable strategies and technologies, supporting a perfect overview and control. If they can do this, they will build robust supply chains that will be able to deal with potential disruptions in the future as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The very essence of supply chains is based on the movement of goods and services. Therefore, there\u2019s no wonder it was seriously disrupted by the global pandemic of COVID-19. A couple closed regions and state borders were enough to cause numerous enterprises to be thrown into complete chaos due to supply outages. Production was often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2869,"featured_media":4243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTechnologies are fundamental<\/h2>\n
Strengthening is necessary<\/h2>\n