Max HenryFounder & Executive Director, Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC) · Founder & Executive Director at Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC)

The Impact of the Pandemic on Sourcing Protocols and Supply Chains

13 Feb 2024 · 2 min

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1:30

In this commentary, the speaker argues that the COVID‑19 pandemic did not fundamentally reshape sourcing protocols or supply‑chain structures, but rather exposed pre‑existing weaknesses. Key points include: the need for greater process agility to launch multiple product packages quickly while maintaining ethical standards; the heightened importance of robust, multi‑level communication with suppliers and internal stakeholders; reliance on advanced inventory‑management intelligence and the urgency of adopting mature software solutions; the critical role of organizational structure, effective recruitment, and the identification of skill gaps in essential functions; and a renewed focus on supply‑chain risk matrices, emphasizing business continuity and sustainability more heavily than before. The overall tone is analytical and measured, highlighting concerns and opportunities revealed by the pandemic.

Chapters

I don't necessarily think the pandemic has driven a reshaping of our sourcing protocols or broader supply chains. I think it's actually highlighted previous susceptibilities we had in areas such as process agility, so our ability to get multiple packages out to market in a short space of time and maintain integrity and ethics. You know, our supplier and stakeholder relationships have become much more important. There's an extra layer in there in regard to being able to communicate at different levels with suppliers and also internal stakeholders. It's really critical. Inventory management intelligence. There's been some really mature inventory management software out there for, you know, for a long period of time. But if you don't have it, you know, you're behind the ball and you have to get it pretty quickly to give you the intelligence to be able to react and manage value and obsolescence. You know, I'd really put a heavy focus on the quality of your organization structure and your recruitment. So areas like organization effectiveness have become absolute critical pillars of what we do, but also what that we had in our structure that were difficult to recruit. And it also sort of identified any sort of skill gaps that we had in critical areas as well. So it certainly highlighted that. And I guess in regards to, you know, we all spend a lot of time and effort on our supply chain risk matrices and discussions internally, you know, and it's certainly sort of put a heavy focus on business continuity and areas like sustainability that were in there but probably weren't as heavily weighted as they needed to be, assuming that things were going to happen and, uh,