Supply chain disruptions are a fact of life. Over the last decade we’ve seen catastrophic earthquakes, flooding, nuclear disasters, and fires; all have blindsided supply chains. But it’s not all doom and gloom, especially if we learn from them.
Covid-19 for example, vividly revealed the vulnerabilities baked into lean, cost-optimized supply chains. It also highlighted the need for building supply-chain-resilience capabilities. During the pandemic, companies that had solid monitoring and supplier mapping capabilities — down to the sub-tier site and part level — had a complete picture of how the evolving crisis would affect their supply chains. This helped companies take action before the disruption hit. Some were able to avert any negative impact.