The sudden spread of corona virus has given us a new set of challenges, we previously have not anticipated. The way we work, live and plan activities have changed overnight. As companies in various sectors have very differing experiences with the impact of corona, our company too have experienced the good and the bad.
We do not know what position you are in, but from this experience we can share a number of things that we have gone through and certain things we expect to play out regarding supply chains from the sourcing, sales, production to delivery.
Single country sourcing for larger scale supply chains are a big risk, this occurrence has played out in the corona virus epidemic, where some of our new clients from around the world have faced the issue where the majority of its supply chain comes out of one country suddenly facing a lock down. It would not be safe to source from a single country, sourcing going forward will have to come from 3 or even 4 sources. We experienced first hand where customers only sourced from China or Malaysia, where lock down has been imposed.
Online B2B sales will have to accelerate or manufacturing companies will suffer. The conventional way of manufacturing companies to sell its products are through trade shows and exhibitions, especially the ones that focuses on B2B sales. The post corona world will effect mass gatherings negatively, so trade shows will have less visitors. So companies must be able to execute sales through Zoom calls or online channels or sales growth will see a drop.
Automated processes will be a way forward, both in operations and administration. With offices now allowing only 50% or less utilization in terms of space and working hours, automated processes will become a way forward. We experience a very slow process in terms of processing shipping documents with an existing workflow from our shipping lines, government offices and forwarders, and in turn effects the time it takes to discharge containers from ports.
Palletization of goods will have to increase as supply chains move towards less human touch points for its product handling due to corona fears, the delivery of loose items involves a lot of labor for loading and unloading, which has to reduce, instead items will be put on pallets, wrapped with a machine, sterilized and loaded on the a truck.
This is a view from the perspective of a B2B focused manufacturing company, looking at various disruptions to our operations through this period, hope it will give some insight or perspective for the readers out there.
