COVID sparked hype around high inventory as resilience, but inflation and rising rates killed that narrative. The tech investments that stuck were visibility tools and better seasonal planning. Supply-chain leaders now have real C-suite influence.
My experience is that during COVID there was a lot of hype around building resilient supply chain. Inventory started to be used as a matter of resilience in the chain. We probably overdo it, overdid it in terms of supply chain professional. And then we got this massive wave of inflation and interest rate that somehow grounded us again. So I think a lot of statements about resiliency ended up in not being active any longer. Whereas what I've seen in my experience is a lot of investment done in terms of technology during COVID to actually build better visibility, to build better process in terms of seasonal production planning. Well, investment done that stayed with us, as well as probably the role of supply chain professional in the C-suite in terms of driving some of this inventory decision that are kind of a leftover of that period.
