Impact of COVID-19 on Supply Chain: A Perspective

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the prevailing wisdom on Supply Chain Management. The classical definition encompassed and measured the flow of information, insights, physical movement, and the resultant's financial obligations from the Supplier's Supplier to the customer's customer.

During the last 3-4 decades, supply chain in companies has reinvented itself and undergone significant transformation. For information and insights, the global supply chain started flocking around workshops, exhibitions, seminars, buyers day, etc. and collective wisdom became the norm.

The emphasis on cost considerations coupled with China's emergence and domination as a manufacturing hub created single or at max dual sourcing model. The centralization of manufacturing capacity found its roots and became the model for the future. Point to point, huge volumes created a vast physical infrastructure of ports and ships. Eventually, it became the preferred option for all the countries i.e. to source from the large manufacturing bases at a reasonable cost via the logistics infrastructure that had got created. COVID 19 pandemic has shattered this ‘collective wisdom’ and it is now forcing countries and organizations to have a hard look at their state of operations.

The pandemic brought to fore the inherent risk of the prevailing models. Let's look at the limitations that have arisen due to COVID:

How would the post Covid19 supply chain scenario be different?

While the next few years could witness significant transformation in the way the World operates, at the end though, it’s about today and, as on date, I wish to dwell on one significant change that's impacting everyone: how to readjust with the social distancing norms and work from home? All of us are habituated to team bonding through a hug, a pat, big or small celebration, working hard and partying harder. But today, the pandemic has challenged the very ‘social’ nature of human beings – the behaviour that has driven Man from stone age times to today.

Human Resource professionals have a tough task of finding the new normal lest— the distancing results in psychological issues leading to disharmony among teams. How the human mind adapts to the new normal in due course will determine how the World moves on from the pandemic.

- Tarun Bhargava – Global Customer Delight Head, Galaxy Surfactants Ltd.