The pandemic has posed significant disruptions in the supply chain globally. However, it didn’t necessarily create new challenges for the industry. In many areas, it brought to light overlooked vulnerabilities. Four Winds KSA shares more about the covid impact on the supply chain.
What is the Covid impact on the supply chain globally?
Covid 19 had a substantial adverse effect on the supply chain. Certainly, some sectors sustained more damages than others. However, life sciences companies, such as pharmaceuticals and food processing businesses have reported an increase in customers’ demand. This could be due to the fact that they produce mainly essential products. Thus, cold chain logistics has fared quite well, compared to other logistics segments. Besides, due to norms on social distancing, the worse blow was on industries dependent on labor. The negative effect of the pandemic nowadays is stabilizing. However, let’s review the major points of the Covid impact on the supply chain:
- Disruptions in workforce
- Supply chain visibility, efficiency, and resilience
- Digital and autonomous future
The Covid impact on the supply chain – workforce disruptions
Due to the pandemic, many employees are asked to work from home. This in itself has a big impact on the supply chain. Namely, many people that work in factory settings have to adapt to personal spacing. Of course, this comes with certain negative effects on the production process itself. Thus, most manufacturers invest in technologies to reduce employee exposure to the virus, or even reduce the need for physical presence. Surely, industrial logistics services have remained in demand. However, this is a point-in-case example to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on the supply chain.
The need for a sustainable supply chain
The pandemic has brought about an increase in regulations from different countries. To effectively deal with these, customs clearance Saudi Arabia services are an ideal solution. The attention is turned to create a sustainable supply chain in the long run. There is a need for visibility and the ability to trace goods and data on their condition. This calls for the development and application of new tech. So, from linear, the supply chain slowly shifts to an integrated network in which many players participate. The efficiency and resilience of the supply chain are recognized as shortfalls thanks to the pandemic and are the main objectives in the next few years.
Digital and autonomous future of the supply chain
Experts claim that the digitalization of the supply chain is accelerated due to Covid. Some reports claim that by 2025, full automation of the supply chain is a possibility. This means fully automated planning, delivery drones, and driverless trucks. Again, the covid impact on the supply chain has sped up these changes. Besides, the future plans aim to build a stronger support system, a need that was present even before 2020.
To sum up, this is the big picture of the Covid impact on the supply chain. We hope you find this text useful and it benefits you. Good luck and stay safe.
