Every business and organisation is treading a careful line of supply and demand post-covid-19.
- Stockout or excess inventory?
- Timely delivery or safety protocols?
- Recover or expand?
- Agility or acceptance?
These are the questions organisations are seeking answers to post-pandemic.
The cure for Coronavirus may have been found. However, the business world is still in havoc. The wreaking profits and the loss of jobs have left the world in disarray.
The risk of complex, dispersed, and disconnected supply chains are one of the worst nightmares for an organisation. And these came true when the pandemic hit. No amount of training or certification of supply chain management can help. A new, innovative, and never thought of strategy is what the world needs.
With that in mind, here is an exclusive list of steps you, as a supply chain management professional, can take to optimise your supply chain post-Covid-19.
- Identify Your Vulnerabilities
Where do the risks lie?
This is conceivably one of the most crucial questions you can ask as a supply chain management professional operating after the pandemic. It may entail a lot of digging and going beyond the first and second tiers of mapping your supply chain.
You must take a look at the other stages of supply chain management like distribution facilities and transportation hubs. It may be time-consuming and not cost-effective at all, but this will help you explain why major firms are focusing their attention only on suppliers that account for a huge chunk of their expenditures.
- Identify and Address the Hidden Risks
Covid-19 has made way for risks that were not even known to exist. For instance, in the past, volume stability enabled the supply chain to deliver with a high level of service while lowering costs at acceptable quality. However, since the pandemic, supply chains have become more variable and require exceptional service levels and at par quality.
Furthermore, the need for advanced technological skills has also ensued due to the pandemic. Identifying and addressing such risks should be the top priority. This is where credible certification of supply chain management comes into play. By exposing you to the latest trends and themes of the domain, these courses are aimed to prepare you for the post-Covid-19 world.
- Diversify Your Supply Base
This is the most obvious yet the most overlooked solution for optimising supply chains. If you have a heavy dependence on one medium (a single supplier or region), diversify your supply base.
As a supply chain management professional, you must have noticed that procurement from countries like China and the US has become a significant challenge due to transportation restrictions. So consider a regional strategy of procuring raw material or required goods from other, accessible regions.
- Seek Haven from Safety Stock
Supply chain management has innumerable benefits. However, the most critical and imperative one is managing the inventory. If suppliers cannot provide you with the requisite material, you can’t shut down your organisation, right?
Sure, safety stock carries with it the risk of obsolescence and tied up cash. However, it also saves the costs of disruption, lost revenues, and higher prices that would have to be paid for short supply materials, not to mention the time and effort your team has to put in to secure them.
So seek alternate suppliers or keep large portions of inventory available at your disposal to avoid running out of stock and paying a higher price for raw materials.
- Leverage Process Innovations
New technologies were introduced to allow companies to lower their costs or switch to more flexible options during the pandemic, enhancing their supply chain processes. You can leverage such technological advancements and make your supply chain more sustainable and robust.
You can also consider revamping your processes and organisational routines to make major process improvements.
To learn in-depth about such ways to optimise your process, consider enrolling for credible certification of supply chain management. One such online professional certification you can rely on is the IIM Kozhikode executive certificate program in supply chain management. Offered on the Talentedge platform, the IIM Kozhikode executive certificate program in supply chain management aims to provide hands-on exposure and up-to-date knowledge in supply chain management, including management in the post-Covid-19 era.
- Look Beyond Recovery
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed businesses to many vulnerabilities and risks. In some cases, it has forced organisations to stop and take a hard look at their processes. In others, it has opened up new avenues for innovation and growth.
To be sure, the challenges due to Covid-19 have not revealed the interdependence or global nature of supply chains. Rather, it has highlighted the need for organisations to manage this interconnectivity when adverse impacts occur. Simply put, it has shown that if companies want to thrive in the post-Covid-19 era, they need to look beyond recovery and focus on long-term plans and economic repercussions.
To build expertise in this facet of supply chain management, you need a global supply chain management course that can provide you exposure to strategies to sustain in the global world and not just a specific industry or market.
- Recognise Shifts
Be it a shift in the customers, business operations, technologies, ecosystems, or workforce; you need to face the changing realities of Covid-19. These shifts can have direct and indirect repercussions on your supply chain.
What can you do to overcome this?
- Assess your organisation’s ability to thrive amid these shifts.
- Position the organisation to thrive.
To gain in-depth knowledge about these and more such strategies, consider enrolling for the IIM Kozhikode executive certificate program in supply chain management. This course can help you stay ahead of the Covid-19 implications and develop strategies to overcome post-pandemic challenges.
Ready to Position Your Organisation to Thrive?
As a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the disruptions have left organisations exposed to vulnerabilities in supply chains. Supply chain managers everywhere are looking for ways to overcome these challenges.
Now that you have the strategies in place, are you ready to position your organisation towards growth? If so, enrol for the IIM Kozhikode executive certificate program in supply chain management and enhance your capabilities to manage the supply chain post-Covid-19.
