The Impact Of The Ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic On Global Supply Chain

Objectives of the Research

The aim of the research is to explore the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on global supply chain. The research would also aim to identify strategies which could be adopted to deal with the impacts the pandemic is having on the global supply chains.

The following are the objectives which the researcher aims to achieve through the research:

1. To explore the impact of coronavirus on global supply chains.
2. To recognise strategies which could be implemented to manage the impacts coronavirus is having on the global supply chains.

The ongoing pandemic has disrupted the global supply chains of almost every goods and services. It has led to even global companies rethink on their respective risk resilience and flexibility in terms of supply chain management. The actual risk resilience and corporate governance of companies have been put to test by the pandemic. Around 94% of the Fortune 1000 companies have reportedly experienced supply chain disruptions owing to the COVID 19 pandemic while around 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies have had reported negative impacts of the pandemic on their businesses. Around 55% of the Fortune 1000 companies gave reportedly have planned to downsize their operations and defer implementation of growth strategies (Accenture.com. 2022). As per the World Economic Forum reports that many companies after the pandemic have come to identify supply chain risks as one of the major risks facing them . The pandemic has forced many companies to reflect on the actual capabilities, strength and performance of their supply chains. Supply chains have been disrupted owing to the pandemic and refuse to return to normalcy. Supply chain issues like port issues, mismanagement of containers and escalating logistics costs have become commonplace for companies (Essa 2022). Consumers have faced problems owing to delay of delivery of goods ordered on the ecommerce platforms during the pandemic owing to supply chain disruptions (Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2021). Most of the investors have gained negative ROI owing to the economic downturns which the pandemic has ushered (Domm, P., 2022). This has discouraged investors from investing into the market, thereby creating disruptions in the flow of financial capital towards the companies. Thus, it can be established on the basis of the discussion that the pandemic has created disruptions in the global supply chains. The business problem which the research report would deal with would be the key negative impacts which the pandemic has caused to the global supply chain.

The research report would aim to delve into the devastating impacts which the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic has on the global supply chain. The research report would explore the risks which disruptions of supply chains can attract to companies. It would also explore some of the strategies which companies can adopt to manage supply chain risks.

 

Supply Chains

Wieland (2021) defines supply chain as, ‘network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and co?operatively working together’. Thus, supply chain refers to the business organisations which collaborate towards raw materials towards manufacturing plants of companies and finished goods from companies to consumers.

Anca (2019) defines the term supply chain management as, ‘integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders’. The author in the same article also defines supply chain management as, ‘a set of synchronized decisions and activities” used to integrate in a more efficient way the suppliers, the manufactures, the warehouses, all transporters involved, the retailers, and the final customers, all this helping that the right product or service will be available and distributed at the right quantities, at the right prices, to the right locations, in the right condition, and at the right time, in order to minimize system-wide costs while trying to satisfy customer requirements’. Thus, it is clear that supply chain management refers to integration of the different participants of supply chains including suppliers to make raw materials available to companies and finished goods available to consumers at the appropriate time and at appropriate costs. It can also be pointed out from the definition that supply chain management enables companies to protect the interests of their different stakeholder groups including the consumers and the suppliers in their supply chains.

Disruption of Global Supply Chains by COVID-19

The research report would follow secondary research strategy. This means that the research would involve gaining pieces of secondary pieces relevant to the topic from reliable sources like books, journals, newspaper articles, articles and magazines. The study would also involve gaining secondary pieces of data from reliable websites like official websites of companies like Accenture, organisations like the World Economic Forum and government websites. The researcher would carry out qualitative analysis of the findings to arrive at a strong conclusion on the topic.

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the global supply chains. Companies are facing immense issues owing to their supply chains being disrupted. Even Fortune 1000 companies are not immune to the effects of the global supply chain disruptions. In fact, the pandemic has affected the operations of most of the Fortune 1000 companies to the extent that many of these companies have decided to postpone implementation of business growth strategies (Accenture.com. 2022). This means that pandemic has affected the very long term growth of leading companies which means long term growth of almost all the industries around the world has been affected negatively. This would have devastating effects on the global economy and socioeconomic welfare of their people at large. The pandemic has also made goods, including essential goods less available to the consumers even on the ecommerce platforms (Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2021). The capital market has been disrupted which means companies would find it more difficult to raise financial capital (Domm, P., 2022). These devastating impacts which the pandemic has attracted towards the companies would form the background for the research.

In this chapter a detailed analysis will be conducted about the previous studies that have been conducted on the different aspects of supply chain and the impact that has been generated by covid-19 on supply chain. The chapter will be taking into account the Global Impact that will be generated on supply chain operations due to covid-19 and how the contingency and resilience factors has been impacted with the implementation of the pandemic in the global scenario. The different reasons due to which the decentralization of the supply chain has been conducted is also going to be stated in this chapter and the economic impact generated on global supply chain management is also going to be identified.

According to Qin et al. (2020), it has been identified that with the impact of covid-19 there has been an increased level of chaos in the associated demand of the product supplies which is leading to implementation of water Technologies and enhancement of the logistics as well as distribution of the products in the Global network of the supply chain. With the implementation of pandemic, it has been identified that the health care services and medical industry are under pressure with the presence of overflowed and the current increased health expenditures which is resulting in the need for Greater supply of medical products and other aspects and it increases the pressure on the Global supply chain operations. Public infrastructure, human capital financial advancement and foreign direct Investments are taken into account in order to understand the negative impact that has been implemented due to the disruption of the covid-19 scenario.

Definition of Supply Chain and Supply Chain Management

It has been identified by Ivanov (2020), the outbreak of the covid-19 has created a lot of challenges as well as threats on the operations of the Global supply chain and meaning operational strategies has been implemented in order to fight against the onset of the impact generated from the pandemic. The specific challenges that have been added to the supply chain in the global scenario includes resilience and responsiveness of the supply chain management which includes critical domain that is capable of generating proactive policies and measures of the government in different countries around the world. The risk that has been generated by covid-19 scenario has resulted in the adjustment of different operations and adaptation of new technology which helps the enterprises in the global scenario to survive the current pandemic and achieve the three important aspects which are responsiveness, restoration and resilience.

In the words of Fonseca and Azevedo (2020), it can be stated that in the current state of the Global supply chain operations of blockchain plays a very crucial role in the decentralization offer supply chain management. The blockchain is capable of maintaining confidentiality and it makes the transaction of the different data available with the help of integrity and it creates a lot of opportunity for the companies across a peer-to-peer network which is very essential in terms of overcoming the current challenges that are being faced due to covid-19 pandemic. The endless application of the blockchain technology along with the different initiatives that can be implemented by it including designing the smart contract and tracking frauds in the financial aspect makes it one of the major aspects that is currently associated with the Global operations of the supply chain management.

According to Zhu, Chou and Tsai (2020), the impact of covid-19 pandemic can be identified by the major disruption and the difficulties that has been implemented on the supply chain management and with the current shortages in the global scenario in the presence of essential goods it can be stated that the covid-19 pandemic has created a lot of challenges for the supply chain management in the global scenario.

According to Das et al. (2021), the Global supply chain sustainability is based on the Proactive design of the supply chain by the help of which it is possible to avoid any kind of risk that is considered to occur frequently in a particular network. In other words, it can be stated that there are brothers of resource reservation in terms of anticipating a particular deserves and that might be caused in the future perspective of the market. However, the impact of covid-19 was unprecedented in nature and it resulted in the disruption in the supply chain management and there is presence of both resilient factors and sustainable factors in the supply chain management that does not help in keeping up with the challenges that has been faced by the supply chain management in global scenario. Simultaneous computation of the associated redundancy in the network along with proactive contingency helps in considering the Dynamics as well as risk of structural disruption in the supply chain management.

Research Strategy

It has been identified by Bento and Couto (2021), the current resilience of the Global supply chain has been exposed and the resilience of the supply chain management is vulnerable in the present scenario of the market due to the impact of covid-19 crisis. It has been investigated that the possible impact that has been generated by the covid-19 on the Global supply chain includes the experience and perception of the associated individuals or institutions that has been affected by the impact of covid-19 pandemic.

In the words of Fonseca and Azevedo (2020), it can be stated that the resilience in the era of the covid-19 pandemic has impacted the humanitarian crisis and also created a lot of restrictions in mobility that has actively disrupted the network of the Global supply chain. The economic downturn that has been conducted by covid-19 has resulted in disruption of the current system that was followed in the Global supply chain management and it has led to the fact that the ability of the supply chain management must be dependent on the resilient factors and the agility factors by the help of which we can become flexible in nature in order to cope up with the current challenges that has been presented by covid-19 pandemic.

As stated by Modgil et al. (2021), it can be identified that global disruption that have been conducted by covid-19 on supply chain is best all the unpredictability and the magnitude of the disruption that has been conducted by the breakdown in the synopsis of the strategies that are associated with a supply chain management in the global scenario. It has been clearly identified that the free description stage is very much important to be taken into account to understand the various areas that need to be covered in the future perspective of the market in order to fight against any kind of pandemic that might disrupt the Global supply chain. The Global supply chain management is dependent on the unpredictability of the management process and it depends on the magnitude of the disruption that has been caused.

According to Abdullah, Rahardja and Oganda (2021), with the outbreak of covid there were negative impacts on the current scenario of the market and the supply chain was facing a lot of problems in terms of maintaining the decentralization process in the food industry. It has been identified by Ino and Watanabe (2021), with the emergence of Covid-19 it was not possible to maintain a proper decentralization process as there were various areas that needed to be taken into account for understanding the current impact of Covid-19. It has been identified by Alkhader et al., (2021), the impact that has been generated by the covid-19 on the decentralisation of the supply chain in the global scenario can be changed by the help of understanding the changes that needs to be implemented on the technological advancement in the industry. It has been identified that blockchain is capable of maintaining the decentralisation process in the global supply chain management that is capable of generating profit for the company in the present perspective of the market which is highly beneficial for the advantages of the company in the global market.

Previous Studies on the Impact of COVID-19 on Global Supply Chain

According to Yu et al. (2021), the presence of the global pandemic resulted in the decrease in the economic activity that resulted in the negative impact on the global supply chain management. The lockdown around the world resulted in increase in the unemployment rate and it also created several social hazards that results in having negative economic impact on the Covid-19. The economic impact that has been generated on the Global supply chain due to covid-19 has hampered the interrelationship that was existent between the authorities, consumers, business and market in the Global supply chain management. Manufacturing aspect of the supply chain management came to a halt as it was becoming hard for the industries to restock their inventory after the implementation of pandemic and since factories were not been opened it became quite difficult to meet the Expectations of the customers that are associated with a particular product or service of the company. The spill over that was conducted by the global pandemic on the supply chain management created a lot of loopholes in the Global transportation of goods and services from one part of the world to another and it create a growth momentum which decreased both the production of the country as well as industrial production.

In the words of Yu et al. (2021), covid-19 pandemic is capable of inducing a recession that helps in losing the real economy into a part of contraction that results in the disruption of the global supply chain management failure with the speed of the covid-19 epidemic it was identified that major economical country like United States slowed down its growth and expansion in various countries in order to be capable of absorbing the economic shock that has been presented by covid-19 on the Global supply chain management. It must also be stated that the economic hit that was presented from covid-19 has impacted a lot on the private companies that accounted for 60% of the GDP of China. There was lack of government subsidiaries and the lack of resources which resulted in the stagnancy of the cash flow and it created a lot of pressure on the supply chain management in the Global market.

In the words of Inoue and Todo (2020), the short-term economic shock that was associated with the covid-19 created a lot of pressure on the transportation as well as constant of labour supply in global market. The present scenario of the Global industry did not take into account the complexity of covid-19 pandemic which created the context of scarcity of product and imbalance in the economic condition in most of the market around the world. The economic hit that was generated on the Global supply chain management increased the Global cost of the products which resulted in disruption of the cash flow of many companies and contentment measure that was presented in places like the Europe as well as United States increased the economic effect that has been generated by supply chain to almost 12.6%.

As stated by Guan et al. (2020), it can be stated that the economic effect that has been generated on places like Tokyo created a lot of pressure on the supply as well as demand shortages of the Global supply Chain Management. the impact that is generated by covid-19 resulted in decrease in the activities of production for the products that are very much essential for the citizens that are present in Tokyo and it created a lot of tension which can easily be identified in the economic impact that was generated on global supply chain management.

Risk Resilience and Strategies

The chapter is going to provide an idea about the research process that is going to be followed in this paper. Projector will be helpful in understanding the research method that is going to be carried out in this paper and the Research Design process that is going to be followed. Secondary data collection method is going to be conducted in this paper and the qualitative data will be analysed by the help of thematic analysis which will be very much helpful in terms of identifying the answer to the research questions and problem that have been identified in this research paper. This chapter is also going to provide a proper idea about the purpose of this research which is to critically analyse the impact generated by covid-19 on global supply chain management and the research methodology is going to be explained in this research paper in order to understand the topic that has been selected in a proper and effective way. The section is also going to provide the process by which previously published articles and journals will be selected for the data analysis method.

With the implementation of covid-19 pandemic a lot of tension is created among the supply chain management in the global scenario. The problem that can be identified in this aspect is that the Global supply chain management was not ready and a proper risk management has not been conducted on the impact that is going to be generated by covid-19 pandemic. Looking at the present perspective of the market it can clearly be identified that impact that has been generated by covid-19 pandemic has resulted in lower supply of product and overall profitability of different companies has also come down by quite a huge margin. Most of the companies operating in the Global market has faced with a similar situation and there is repercussion of the economic impact that has been generated on global supply chain. Supply chain has also not been capable of identifying the different process by the help of which it is going to be capable overcoming the current challenges that are being faced by it. The transportation of goods and supplies along with production and manufacture of the different products has been impacted with the implementation of covid-19 pandemic and after the implementation of global lockdown it has not been possible to conduct optimum operations in the Global supply chain management. The main problem that can be identified in this context is that identification of the exact steps that can be followed to overcome from the problem has not been identified and the impact that has been generated on global supply chain management can be identified in all the different aspects of it which includes financial and stability of the Global supply chain management. Optimum process has not been initiated by the help of which it can be possible to help companies cope with the current challenges of global supply chain management due to covid-19.

This section is going to provide a proper idea about the research approach that is going to be selected for this research paper and the main purpose of this research. The research methodology is also going to be stated in this part which is very much essential in terms of identifying the collection method of the data and the process by the help of which the data analysis is going to be conducted. Secondary data collection method is going to be identified in this research paper and the Research Design is going to be implemented in such a way that it is capable of conducting a secondary data analysis (Castleberry and Nolen 2018). The design of the research will be involving the organisation of the data, collation of the data and analysing the sample of the data by identifying the valid conclusion that can be drawn from the research (Johnson, Adkins and Chauvin 2020). The Research Design that is selected for this paper is going to be highly viable in nature in terms of conducting the research analysis. Secondary qualitative data is going to be selected in this research paper which will be very much helpful for the researcher in order to identify the existing data that is available and summarise the data and arrange them in an optimum manner so that the overall efficiency of the paper can be improved (Aspers and Corte 2019).

Conclusion

Inductive approach is going to be selected as the process for this research paper. The inductive approach is going to ensure the fact that the data that is going to be collected will be observed based on the themes that are associated with the research topic and different patterns will be identified in order to identify the outcome of the research questions that has been identified for this paper. The inductive research approach is going to be very much available in nature in terms of understanding the common patterns that are associated with the research progress and it will help in conducting a proper data analysis that is going to be helpful in terms of empirical observation and creating a proper recommendation based on the patterns that has been identified (McFarland et al. 2018). Since the paper is going to take into account the importance of the current perspective of the market and the impact that has been generated by covid-19 and the Global supply chain it can clearly be identified that by the help of inductive approach it is going to be very much helpful in terms of understanding the current procedure that is being undertaken by companies in order to overcome the challenges of covid-19 and based on this process and the effectiveness of this process it will be easier to understand the level of impact that has been generated by covid-19 on global supply chain management (Azungah 2018). With the help of this inductive approach, it is also going to be possible to look at the wider perspective of the market and also understand the process by the help of which the quality data is going to be analyse and a new theory will be generated that will help in identifying the recommended process that can be stated to the companies operating in the Global market. The inductive approach is also going to create a proper methodology that is going to be helpful for the researcher in terms of looking at the current pattern of the impact that has been generated on different industries by covid-19 and it will be helpful in understanding the common problems that are being faced by each of the industries to come up with a common solution that can be applied to each and every Industry that is associated with the Global market (Lowe et al. 2018).

 Research Purpose

The main purpose of this research paper is to identify the current condition of the Global supply chain due to the impact of covid-19 and the various challenges that are being faced by the supply chain. The research paper is also going to identify the recommendation that can be provided to the companies operating in the Global supply chain in order to help the companies overcome the challenges that are being faced from the impact of the pandemic. Different factors that are affecting the supply chain management and the impact generated on global operations including the contingency and resilience factors will be taken into account in this research paper and recommendations will be provided on these factors. The process by which the decentralization of supply chain has been conducted will also be taken into account and strategies to overcome the challenge will be stated in this research paper. The purpose of this research paper is also to identify the impact that has been generated on the economic condition of the Global supply chain management and it is also going to be very much helpful in understanding the current condition of the market and the process by the help of which the future condition of the Global supply chain management can be enhanced.

Secondary data collection method is going to be utilised in this research paper. Secondary data collection method is going to be very much helpful in terms of gathering a wide range of data from the previously published articles and journals as well as internet sources (Stieglitz et al 2018). The data that is going to be gathered from the secondary articles will be based on the impact of covid-19 on global supply chain. The data that is going to be collected will be from the latest articles and journals that contains all the information on the impact that has been generated on supply chain management after the implementation of lock down during the pandemic. The utilisation of secondary data collection method will provide the researcher with an opportunity to gather a wide amount of data which is going to be very much potential in terms of computing the research questions that has been selected for this paper and it will also be possible to meet the research that has been identified above. The secondary data collection method is also very much feasible in nature in terms of cost efficiency as the data that is going to be collected will be gathered from different libraries like Google scholar in order to ensure the fact that peer reviewed articles and journals are selected which will provide genuine data an optimum positive outcome of this research paper can be gained. The research of the previously published data will be conducted on the selected keywords that is going to be identified for gathering data from the previously published articles, journals, books and internet sources (Rahman 2020). The keywords will be containing words like impact of covid-19 on global supply chain network. The articles that will be containing information regarding the impact of covid-19 on different sectors will not be selected for this research paper. Only the articles that will have information about the impact of covid-19 on supply chain management is going to be selected for this research paper. Information regarding the impact generated on different companies in the Global market scenario is going to be selected in this paper as a part of the research process that is going to be conducted for identify the recommendations that can be provided to the global supply chain management to cope up with the impact of covid-19. The process of secondary data collection methods is going to be very much helpful in terms of generating data that is going to be essential for conducting the data analysis process.

The research assumptions of this research paper are to ensure the fact that the data that will be analysed will be helpful in understanding the impact of Covid-19 on global supply chain and this paper will be helpful in fining out the recommended steps that can be implemented to cope up with the challenges identified.

Thematic data analysis method has been selected for the research paper based on the data collected from the secondary method of data collection.

It is vital to gather data using secondary researches in the study so that complete knowledge in the area can be developed. In this regard, several journal articles, case studies, peer-reviewed journals, business reports and non-government and government websites have been explored to derive the data from them. The data being collected is analyzed in this chapter using the thematic data analysis.

Impact of Coronavirus on global supply chain: 

The data collected reveal in this regard that the effect of covid-19 on the global supply chain has been devastating and massive. It has been revealed as per the reports that almost 66% of the companies around the world depended on China for their supplies and manufacturing (Butt 2021). The pandemic situation has devastated this dependence to a huge extent and is forcing the companies to rethink about their own reliability and stability if the supply chains so that they can face the adversities in the future years. Most of the companies had to deal with unpredicted demands during the pandemic which the disrupted supply chains could hardly handle. In the uncertain situations, it is seen that the companies usually slow down their investments in technology. However, during the pandemic situation, it has been seen that the almost 92% of the companies halted their technological investments which affected the global supply chain to a huge extent (Aday and Aday 2020). This clearly proved the fact that how the digital supply chain could have helped several companies in navigating the disruptive forces and respond to the volatile demand and supply in an optimum manner. However, in some of the reports, there were some clear winners being indicated in the process with 11% positive effects and experiencing increase in customer demand by 71% in the market even during the pandemic situation. These were most those companies that belonged to the sector of life sciences and came up with about 57% new products in the industry (Singh et al 2021). However, the companies belonging to the consumer products sector could not keep up their products like toilet paper, flour, canned goods and other staples owing to the disruptions in the supply chain.

Some of the other sectors that were hit real hard were the industrial and automotive sectors where about 97% of the companies had negative effect on their supply chain owing to the pandemic situation (Barman, Das and De 2021). In addition to this, about 47% of the companies reported that the Coronavirus situation has affected their workforce quite badly which further disrupted the supply chains globally. While many of the employees had an opportunity to work from their homes, the employees belong to the factory settings had to adapt to the new requirements like contact-tracing, physical spacing and the extensive use of PPE (Grida, Mohamed and Zaied 2020). The high-tech manufacturing units had to invest huge amounts to protect their employees from the infectious virus which alternatively reduced their investments in the supply chain management functions.

The findings clearly show the fact that most of the companies were unprepared of the adverse situations and their over-dependence of the supply chain of China made them suffer during the pandemic situation to a huge extent (Goel, Saunoris and Goel 2021). There is clear lack of responsiveness in the supply chain of the companies operating globally for which they failed to respond to the fluctuating demands of the customers in the prompt manner.

Economic factors being affected by Covid-19 and their impact on global supply chain: 

Data collected in the field reveal the fact that the pandemic situation has had serious impacts on the economic factors all over the world. It has been found that the total volatility spillovers in the global stock market reached to about 69% during the Coronavirus situation. The companies in the energy sectors followed by those in the oil and gas industries brought about major net transmissions of volatility (Sharma, Adhikary and Borah 2020). This magnified spillovers increased the volatility in the stock markets globally. The labor markets had been equally affected owing to the spread of the dangerous virus. In Canada, almost 3 million labors lost their jobs and the economy almost got devastated in the initial years of the pandemic situation.

 

Source: (Aigbedo 2021)

The figure above clearly show the fact how employment got affected in Canada during the pandemic years and the labors and companies all around felt helpless in the crisis. However, in Germany the scenario was different where the labor market was seen to remain stabilized (Alam and Khatun 2021). In Spain, the employment levels fell down sharply during the pandemic recession and in the United States, the tight conditions on the labor markets created scarcity of workers. Therefore, it has been seen that the conditions experienced in terms of labor market and unemployment were mixed during the pandemic situation.

The predictions made by the experts in the field showed the fact that the economic growth and the GDP of the countries globally experienced a shrink of almost 1% during the pandemic years owing to the restrictions imposed on several economic activities by the government of various countries (Remko 2020). The sectors in the economy that got hardly hit owing to the lockdowns and restrictions were the service industries, tourism and leisure and the transportation services. This severe shock on the economy gave rise to recession in several countries which deeply affected the economy. The negative shock in GDP was seen in almost 1.8% developed countries and in 2% developing countries which affected the economic growth and stability of the entire globe (Sharma, Gupta and Jha 2020). Restrictions on international trade and commerce deteriorated the economy further.

The economic downturns owing to the pandemic affected the supply chain disruptions all over the world further. Almost 75% of the companies all over the world had negative impacts on the supply chain and about 55% of the companies globally saw downturns in their businesses owing to labor shortages in the supply chain networks (Khudhair et al 2020). The fulfillment costs globally got enhanced to a huge extent in the pandemic situation which further disrupted the supply chains of the companies. It has also been highlighted in the literature review part that the supply chains of the companies suffered at the global levels owing to the talent gaps that were seen in the labor markets. Similar reports has also been found in the other data available in the journals of companies like Accenture which reported that talent gaps across the operations of the supply chain globally created huge dependence on the human workforce which disrupted the operations further.

Over-localization and decentralization of the supply chain: 

The data collected reveal the fact that in the pandemic situation, almost 65% of the companies all over the world relied on localized supply chains to carry on their businesses (Höhler and Lansink 2021).  This had huge negative impacts on the supply chain of such companies as they were seen suffering from lesser stability and efficiency in their operations. A shift made to the localized process of supply chain led to an estimated decrease of about 5% in the global GDP real rate in relation to the Covid-19 baseline. The reductions that were seen in the economic activities across various countries and regions reached almost to the double digits in some of the sectors. The increase localization of the supply chain added further to the losses in GDP and economic growth in the pandemic (Sharma et al 2020). Therefore, it can be said that the localized supply chains supported the domestic producers to some extent but also proved the fact that not every stage of the production process can take place locally in the home country. This also reflected the fact that when there are lesser international diversifications of sales and sourcing, the domestic markets require making further adjustments in order to absorb the shocks. More localization also means more dependence on the fewer sources of supplies which affected the resilience of the supply chains to a huge extent. This in turn affected the quality of goods that were supplied to the customers during the pandemic causing the reputation of the companies to get damaged in the markets.

It has also been cited in the literature review part of the research that the process of decentralization in the supply chain of the food industry could not be maintained in the pandemic which created problems in the operations. The data collected in the regard reveal that fact that the supply chain of the food industry suffered to about 67% owing to the delay in transportations as the pandemic restrictions had limited several drivers all across the world. The pandemic situation has also seen 58% changes in the consumer demand in food consumption because the customers wanted to have healthy food but at the same time would not exceed their common budget (Belhadi et al 2021). As per the reports of the CREA, the consumption of food products increased to 29% in fruits, 33% in legumes and 26.5 % in vegetables. Almost 70% of the customers in the USA placed orders of groceries online during the pandemic. This put huge pressure on the supply chains of several companies across the world as not every company had incorporated the technological advancements of decentralization in their supply chain management functions.

Key strategies required to handle the impact of the pandemic on the global supply chains: 

The data collected in this regard reveal the fact that 76% of the companies have agreed on the fact that resilience, reskilling of the employees in the supply chain networks and enhancing the efficiency of the global supply chain are the best measures to be taken in order to order to combat the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the global value chain systems. The surveys conducted in the field have also revealed the fact that 60% of the companies all over the world are trying the enhance the visibility of their supply chain networks in the next three years to come so that they can establish a resilient supply chain system to serve the customers optimally and face the adversities in the future years.

Experts in the field also assert to the fact that 28% of stress must be given on making the supply chain systems turn more responsive in nature so that the companies can deal with severities in the value chain systems in the future as well and make their supply chain system turn more competitive in nature (Derevyankina and Yankovskaya 2020). Almost 76% of the companies believe the fact that the supply chain systems worldwide must be made more sustainable in nature rather than being cost-effective. This is the core lesson that the pandemic had offered to the companies. Shifting from the linear supply chain systems to the more integrated ones can help the companies in facing further pandemic situations with ease and confidence. The use of IoT devices and sensors in the value chain system will help in offering valuable data of the goods while in the chain and also enable the companies to understand their conditions. This real-time visibility of the products in the supply chain will help in balancing both costs and resilience in the supply chain system.

Almost 61% of the companies have been seen to reskill their workforces so that they can better adopt the technologies required to build a more efficient supply chain network. The pandemic situation has forced companies to move away from their traditional working techniques and adopt the virtual collaboration in the supply chain systems which require the warehouses to be automated and blockchain to be enabled in the value chain system so that decentralization in supply chain can be successfully achieved. Therefore, it is crucial that companies offer training to their workers in this regard so that the changes in the systems can be deployed in a better manner (Larrañeta, Dominguez-Robles and Lamprou 2020). Almost every company in the world is planning to have contingency programs developed for their supply chain networks so that they can face the future adversities with ease. The global pandemic had shaken the entire economy and brought about huge diversities in the operations. Taking lessons from this, the companies now are preparing to design future-proof supply chain networks so that they can deal with market fluctuations with ease.

The data collected also reveal the fact that the future supply chain systems are driving the companies to have more agility in their supply chain networks across planning, manufacturing, procurement, and logistics so that organizations can differentiate one another in the market and achieve growth in the long run. Reports in the study reveal the fact that 64% of the companies all over the world are moving towards digital transformation in their supply chain systems and are heading towards achieving robotics in the stores and warehouses, driverless trucks and forklifts and automated warehouse planning by the year 2025. Finally, it can be said that both autonomous and digital technologies included in the supply chain management will help it in turning more optimized and efficient.

Conclusions

The pandemic situation prevailing all over the world has disrupted the global trade and businesses and therefore has severely affected the supply chains as well. The shutting down of the factories and the manufacturing units left the businesses to struggle for their source materials and thereby the demand fulfillment part also suffered a lot. Most of the companies in the world have reported supply chain disruptions in the capacity of their operations owing to the pandemic situation. The crisis period had made the companies aware of the fact that adversities might crop up at any point in time in the business and therefore it is vital they remain prepared for such situations. Rapid decision-making is very crucial to deal with adversities like pandemic given the supply chain quality and costs. It is also a true fact that the effects of the pandemic on the supply chain might not be ending too fast and therefore, in the post pandemic situation the companies have to struggle a lot in order to fix the issues in their supply chains. The economic disruptions caused in the pandemic period has been real severe and still many companies are in the process of tracking the changes in the economic trends and practices of the customers so that they can revive and redesign their supply chains accordingly. Certain companies in the world have already taken precautionary steps in the supply chain through automation and enhanced transparency so that they can prepare for the future challenges to come ahead. The study has clearly shown the fact that the supply chain disruptions are closely associated with several economic factors and the reduction in investments in the global supply chain networks. Scarcity of data in comparison to the requirement of the topic has been faced to a certain extent. Telling apart authentic data from fake data has been extremely time consuming.

The study also highlights the fact that the ability of being responsive is a key driver which can allow companies to make quick decisions at the time of supply chain disruptions. However, this factor is again linked to enhanced visibility in the supply chain which can enable the companies to make quick decisions. The inventory policies linked to supply chain networks need to be redesigned at the global scale so that new technologies can be included in the system and alternative sourcing options for materials can be found. These actions will help in making the supply chain systems turn more resilient in nature and help the companies in carrying out their operations in an efficient manner. The emerging supply chain trends are to be studied by the companies all over the globe so that they can adopt the new advancements in their operations and build up a sustainable supply chain network so that they can resist any shock in the upcoming years. The digital transformation of the supply chain would ensure end-to-end collaboration, visibility, optimization and agility in the networks.

It can be recommended on the basis of the study that companies in order to deal with the supply chain risks owing to the pandemic should either adopt or focus on local sourcing. This would enable them minimise procuring goods from overseas, thereby making resilient to logistics issues. It can also be recommended that companies should maintain contingency stocks of goods. They would be able to mobilise this stock of goods to deal with supply chain risks created by the pandemic.

In developing this study, I acquired a lot of knowledge in the subject area under research and also developed further understanding about how a dissertation must be built up in a chronological manner. In developing the report, I firstly thought on the topic on which the research must be conducted so that it turns relevant to the current scenario taking place in the global economy. The topic that I thought would be most trending and beneficial for the research is about impact of the pandemic on the global supply chain as there have been real disruptions in the field owing to the several changes that have taken place in the economy in the past two to three years of the crisis situation. I had already learnt about the traditional theories related to supply chain management in my study course which helped me further to relate to the topic in a much better manner.

I firstly started with developing the first chapter of the dissertation so that I could develop the research aims and objectives, the research questions and problems to be addressed to on which the entire study would be based upon. Thereafter, I defined certain vital terms related to supply chain which helped me in getting better understanding of the topic under consideration. In the process of the development of the report I got to understand how the different themes related to the impact of pandemic on supply chain requires to be arranged in a systematic manner so that the data get placed accordingly and a correct analysis of the topic under consideration can be made for the best results of the dissertation. This research helped me in developing my analytical skills further as I had to interpret several data and theories advocated by the experts in the field in the secondary research. This development of the skill will help me further in my career ahead where I may have to do several other researches and interpretations for the company that I would work in.

This research also helped me in coming across various industrial data and navigates through the various economical impacts of the pandemic all over the world. Having an idea of the latest business insights can help me further in the practical world and I can apply the knowledge gained where needed. I was able to understand that companies in today’s date can no longer survive with the traditional methods of supply change and keep on applying the old techniques of just-in-time inventory systems and remain competitive in this dynamic business world. It is time for the organizations to go digitalized in the true sense so that they can face the adversities of the times and redesign their business goals to achieve success in the coming years of their operations. This study has helped me realize the fact that not just the developing countries, but it is also the developed countries who have faced the disruptions of the pandemic in a severe manner offering the lesson that no matter how powerful an economy is, it can be shaken by crisis situations if it does not have a contingency plan in hand.

The dissertation writing has also helped me in learning various techniques and methods that get applied in developing a complete research report. For instance, I came to know about the various techniques of research design, method and data analysis which I was not aware of earlier. This learning and experience can help me develop further dissertations in my academic field in the future years. I also developed the skill of problem solving while developing this research report as I faced several troubles in deciding as to which information was correct and relevant to the study. This further helped me improve my research skills and project management techniques so that I can easily handle similar works in the future. I developing this long task, I also had developed a lot of patience of dealing with a specific topic for a long period of time which I think will help me in my career ahead to a huge extent when I am appointed to work for a project for several months for a company.

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