Outsourcing production to other countries where products such as clothes, computer chips, medicine and computer chips was once a simple thing to do. It led to value through design capabilities in other countries and low cost of production. Many businesses used inexpensive labour abroad to assemble products and global distributors who would manufacture and deliver materials for American firms. However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen massive challenges in the supply chain, which have stressed the movement of products to unprecedented levels. With other challenges such as high levels of supplies coming to the US, geopolitical disruptions, the pandemic itself and the aging infrastructure, there have been unprecedented challenges in global markets, most of which are caused by disruption of supply routes.

Risk management is one of the critical areas in supply chain and procurement. At the heart of this is the development of resilience of strategies to safeguard supply chains, ensuring business continuity. With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that the lack of a comprehensive resilience plan can lead to challenges of high magnitude for businesses. As such, it is crucial to have a plan that comes into play if a problem, such as a disaster, occurs. Supply chain resilience is the ability of a supply chain to prepare for and adapt to unexpected events. The resilience plan, therefore, leads to the adjustment of the company to sudden disruptive events that adversely affect the supply chain’s performance. To continue functioning during and after disruption, an organization needs a resilience plan that has the following characteristics:

The beginning of a new year is always the start of new challenges. It can be not easy to know where you want to go and the efforts that you need to put in for success. In the supply chain, it is difficult to put things in order and start a new year on a high note considering the events of the end year. As such, you need to develop concrete plans that will help you out of the confusion you are in and assist you make better decisions. Here is how you can build a strategic plan to propel your supply chain strategy.