Preparing for a Post-COVID-19 supply chain reality
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, world governments are taking measures to figure out the right response – balancing the priority need of keeping their citizens healthy and safe – encouraging and enforcing social distancing to spread the infection - while ensuring that essential supply chains around health care and food supply continue to function. Yet initial responses show the challenges and illuminate the chances of getting things wrongs as reactive decisions and measures are undertaken with the best of interests. A global not regional or local shock While supply chains have in the past encountered, overcome, and learnt from shocks – both uncontrollable (natural disasters, weather etc.) or controllable (trade restrictions, transport industry strikes etc.) – none have been at the global scale of COVID-19. Bill Gates described in his 2015 Ted Talk, “as you look at what went on, the problem wasn't that there was a system that didn't work well enough, ...