75% of companies report supply chain disruptions in some capacity due to coronavirus-related transportation restrictions. 16% also report adjusting their revenue targets downward an average of 5.6% as a direct result of coronavirus. Coronavirus-related disruption would change how their company operates its supply chain in the future, nearly a third of respondents expressed that they felt that their company should have better risk management protocols in place.
Events that take place in one location can have a ripple effect that is felt thousands of miles away. Nowhere is this truer than in the supply chain logistics industry, which consists of a global, interdependent network of raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, carriers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. This network is set up in such a way that events that transpire at one point along the supply chain can have serious downstream repercussions throughout the rest of the supply chain.
Case of the current COVID-19 outbreak, the panic buying and hoarding of essentials such as food, paper goods, and sanitary products have radically skewed demand patterns, making it difficult for vendors throughout the supply chain to generate accurate forecasts. In this sense, a supply chain is something like a series of dominoes – and without a logistics contingency plan in place, the whole supply chain can topple.