Global Pandemic is an international issue that requires international solutions. If a global pandemic gets activated, the entire society will pay a heavy price for decades of failing to create and preserve a rational supply chain management system. Supply chain management online course is designed for those who wish to mitigate the disastrous effects of a global pandemic in fields of production, manufacturing and inventory control.
What is a Global Pandemic?
A global pandemic is a disease epidemic that spreads across large geographical areas transcending national boundaries. Some gruesome examples of global pandemics are Black Death, Small Pox and Tuberculosis. The current ones are HIV/AIDS and Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
How does a Global Pandemic Effect Supply Chain Management?
Developing a persuasive supply chain response to global pandemics is is extremely challenging, given the magnitude of the pandemic and the rate at which it is evolving. The long term consequences are not well-known yet but with previous and current experiences such as the (COVD-19), there are some learning points that can help to effectively shield your company against large scale crises. XLRI supply chain management course in logistics and Supply Chain can prepare management professionals to make their supply chains more resilient.
Let’s look at some measures that can mitigate the effects of pandemics on supply chains.
- Begin with Your People
Employee welfare is paramount and people are precious resources. The companies that recover faster after the global pandemics subsides are those who can track down all their employees who were of unknown whereabouts. Companies should create facilities on high ground where there is a zero infection rate with housing, cash advances, foodstuffs for employees and their dependents.
Also, there is the concept of rethinking work practices to get the job done. If a particular area is shut down, then the company can train its workforce through Supply chain management online courses and relocate personnel from other cities to keep the supply chain running.
- Redesign with Secondary Sources
Having a backup capacity for supply production and distribution outages lowers the risk levels. It is efficient to have a second source external to the primary source region.
- Redesign to Local Soucing
This design requires a company to fill its major markets with production facilities with supply sources. In this way, the economies of scale and transportation costs are lowered. XLRI supply chain management course is well-reputed in giving courses regarding strategizing of diversification of supply base and turning crisis management into risk management.
In selecting a contingency design, the effects of cost-effectiveness and ability to serve the customers have to be considered.
Final Thoughts
It is inconceivable to anticipate the outbreak fo global pandemics, case in point such as the coronavirus, but companies can reduce their impact by escalating supply chain preparedness to modify and execute new plans. Companies should be ready with a plan of action before a disruption occurs rather than starting from the drawing board again when they are knee-depth in a new crisis.