Learning from Crisis: 4 Ways to Improve & Strengthen Your Supply Chain

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, many companies experienced unexpected challenges in their supply chain. Production and shipping delays, shortages of critical items, and other unforeseen complications resulted in supply chain disruption across the globe. As we move forward towards a state of recovery, companies can take note of valuable lessons learned during the crisis in order to implement procedures that will help strengthen their supply chain and gain a competitive advantage in the days ahead.

#1: It’s Important to Identify Your Critical Supply Chain

The pandemic uncovered significant flaws in the supply chain that resulted in unexpected shortages of critical materials. Specifically, shortages of personal protection equipment such as gloves, masks, and other vital medical supplies caused major concern for essential workers at the forefront of the pandemic.

So, how can unexpected shortages of critical items be prevented? While many companies procure large numbers of products and services, not all components have the same criticality. Moving forward, it should be considered essential to identify, assess, and document the critical elements of your supply chain – going beyond the bill of materials and including components needed to build and ship products.

Take stock. What does your Critical Supply Chain look like?

Read the full whitepaper from our partner Expense Reduction Analysts or contact us for more information. Thank you to Dileep Kulkarni, Principal Consultant at Expense Reduction Analysts for contributing to this blog.