Agility and Resilience in the supply chain
Supply chain operations are critical to any business. With the explosive growth of eCommerce – in part due to the pandemic – its importance is only increasing. Supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions from both operational and environmental factors. In turn, building agility and resilience throughout the supply chain is crucial.
Gartner, international research and advisory firm, defines agility and resilience as:
- Agility: the ability to sense and respond to unanticipated changes in demand or supply quickly and reliably, without sacrificing cost or quality.
- Resilience: the ability to adapt to structural changes by modifying supply chain strategies, products and technologies.
The road to developing a more agile and resilient supply chain can be achieved through careful planning, robust but flexible processes, and establishing a set of responses for “what-if” scenarios. With the ability to adapt strategically, supply chains can easily react to external trends and customer demands while navigating the challenges of increasing stock-keeping unit (SKU) complexity.
What makes a supply chain adaptable?
An adaptable supply chain should be able to prepare for, respond to, and recover from unexpected risk events. Pandemics, natural disasters, political events, economic crises or cybercrime are a few disruption examples. While it is not always possible to plan for unexpected events, businesses can prepare for anticipated events and any possible disruptions that may arise.
Once achieved, only then can they show the required resilience to manage the impacts of unexpected demand shifts, interrupted goods flows and transport or shipping disruptions.
The honest truth
The unprecedented supply chain disruptions experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 continue to wreak havoc, serving as a wake-up call to many businesses. It was time to answer the hard question – are we prepared for the next unpredictable disruption? Leading technology consultant, Capgemini, reported that almost two-thirds of companies say their strategy needs to change significantly to make supply chain resilience a key priority.
Prepare for disruptions with Körber
Technology optimizes supply chain operations to improve a business’ agility and resilience in the face of disruption. Körber Supply Chain Software’s solutions can empower organizations to build the supply chains of the future. With the best fit solution, and the right partner, a business can optimize processes to become resilient, cost-efficient, and able to meet rising customer demands.
