Question

COVID-19 has led many countries to close their borders and limit transportation. This has led to supply chain disruptions. For example,

• Grocery stores have struggled to keep certain items in stock (remember the run on toilet paper in spring)
• Essential materials have been delayed at border crossings, causing shortages of supplies in various businesses
• COVID-19 outbreaks in factories have shut down manufacturing processes, resulting in shortages

In response, business people have begun discussing how to create "robust" supply chains. By robust, they mean supply chains that can continue to move goods despite disruptions caused by natural or human-made disasters.

How can companies improve the robustness of their supply chain? Inform your answer with some research.

Answer 1

The robust supply chain strategies include the following:

1. Postponement- it is one of the effective strategies and it utilizes the process or products design that emphasizes on operations reversal, modular design, commonality and standardization. It is an effective strategy for products that are generic on the basis of total aggregate demand for products.

2. Strategic stock- Instead of keeping more number of safety stocks, it can store the inventories at a strategic location which will facilitate sharing of the inventory items with the repair centres, and retailers.

3. Make and buy- when a company supply chain disruptions, it can become more resilient through the producing products in house and outsourcing the remaining ones.

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