The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the modern supply chains as just a house of cards that can collapse when they are put under pressure. Many businesses caught flat-footed by lockdowns and restrictions of movements have found the recovery process difficult to navigate. The clogged ports and shortages of materials resulted in backlogs across the supply chain hubs. While things are starting to unwind, trade channels continue to face challenges making it hard for operations to return to normal. Assuming that a new wave of the virus does not emerge, the worst-hit industries are expected to recover at the beginning of 2023 or the end of this year.

The supply chain is undoubtedly one of the most crucial parts of any business. For this reason, most executives believe that getting the supply chain right will translate to better supply chain costs. This is not an easy task considering the supply chain is a series of discrete siloed steps that are taken through marketing, development, manufacturing and distribution of a product to the hands of a customer. However, with digitization, the siloes are broken. The chain becomes an integrated, transparent ecosystem for each player, from raw material suppliers, components suppliers and transporters of finished products to the customers who demand fulfillment.

Supply chain is a complicated beast, and we can’t afford to skimp on the details (e.g. timeliness, quality, logistics, etc.) in our business operations. Despite the fact that the term is often used interchangeably with “dispatch”, it has a very different meaning and tends to be more about planning for delivery than about getting goods from one point to another on a defined schedule.