A Bug in the System and the Weakest Link Mantra; Lessons from COVID-19 for Resilient Global Supply Chain
- November 26, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS Team
- Categories: COVID-19, IJRSI
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue X, October 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705
Omole, Timilehin Michael1, Ehimen, Osezefe Isaac2, Omole, Miriam Lami3
1University of Roehampton Business School
2Ducit Blue Solutions
3First Bank of Nigeria
ABSTRACT:
Building a resilient global supply chain is a prominent theme in the recommended strategies for managing disruptions of the scale brought by the COVID-19 Pandemic. This work is a systematic review of the history of pandemics in the past 100 years and their relation with the global supply chain and the economy at the time. It queries the weak link in the global supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies lessons to shape the design of future global supply chains. In the review, the causes of the pandemics and impacts via trade routes and other economic factors were compared. We also compared the pandemic severities and economic impacts on most affected countries. Tracking the global supply chains route and travel routes is a key lesson for countries trying to contain and mitigate future pandemics. The COVID-19 challenge has begun to reengineer global supply chains and we concluded with a recommendation of re-identifying the weakest links, consider distributed or decentralized supply chain networks and consider Africa and the global south as an alternative for resilient global supply chain post-COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, Global Supply Chain, Pandemic, Resilience and Strategy
INTRODUCTION:
As China makes progress in curbing the spread of the COVID-19, it is important to begin to track the lessons as the world continues in the fight against the virus. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chain, economics and businesses has been heralded as huge, unprecedented and still unveiling (Betti& Ni, 2020, Simchi-Levi, 2020 and Choi, Rogers & Vakil, 2020). China as the dominant world’s factory receiving the hit of disruption by COVID-19 confers a significant downturn to the global supply chain and of course business and the economy (Kilpatrick, 2020).
