2020 is best known as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Other than the increasing death rates, it has also impacted business on a massive scale. There was a time when factories got shut down, and customers got their products late than the usual time. Currently, the logistical issues associated with China trade tensions started to ease gradually. It made the supply chain domain occupied with lesser roadblocks. However, the scene had witnessed new challenges, and several business organizations are discovering that they can’t deal with this sudden impact of the virus and economic downswing.

As these companies are working hard to adapt, it has become essential for them to invest in both short-term tactical solutions and smart long-term strategies. It indicates that they need to say yes to new tools. That is not all. Business organizations need to say yes to new approaches for managing, analyzing, monitoring, and mapping a business risk. Eric Dalius says that all these instances make the business supply chain vulnerable, and the chances of danger are always more.

Here, every company must ponder a question: when a sudden disruption occurs, are they equipped to surmount it? Do you resonate with this question? If so, here are three approaches that you can implement to secure your supply chain in today’s age of increasing disruption.

Here are the ways to check

1. Focus on diversifying

Currently, the supply chain environment has become dependant entirely on a robust and diverse sourcing channel. As the sourcing issues increase, the saying about business risks of having excess eggs in one basket becomes more prominent. Business organizations need to streamline their approach.

The organizations have started to learn the complicated way that depending on one supplier is risky. It can lead to unwarranted issues. Is your organization facing sourcing issues? If yes, then it is essential to respond now and arrive at a remedy. You need to recognize the alternative partners who can help you reconfigure and diversify the supply chain to get every operation back to track and alleviate the damages.

Whenever there is a global order disruption, there is a need for a worldwide order solution. Hence, Eric J Dalius says that it’s essential to search for partners with a diversified global network. These supply chain networks can support your business organization from the disruption that might stem from any climatic events, sudden regulatory changes, viral outbreaks, geopolitical turmoil, labor or component shortages, or increased demands. Regardless of any situation, the network will help you to ensure a steady supply chain.

2. Count on digitization

The process of digitization refers to the implementation and adoption of advanced online technologies, which allow the organizations to attain greater scalability and agility in the supply chain logistics. It also helps to enhance the complete business operations. And these technologies do include but aren’t restricted to SMT (Surface Mount Technology), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and the blockchain platforms. Each of these aspects is essential and can help organizations to adapt fast when there is a disruption.

There is the utmost relevance to supply chain transparency. And one of the best ways to attain it is through digitization. And currently, as the latest challenges in the supply chain recur, more organizations realize that they need to work on their transparency.

Supply chain transparency includes reflecting the visibility level an organization has to its direct and indirect suppliers. It also counts on this data’s availability to the main stakeholders when the company is carrying out both contingency and strategic planning.

The implementation of online technologies highlights that supply logistics is not a direct chain. Instead, it is one dynamic network that can have several challenges depending on the economic and social turbulences. And if there is no network transparency through digitization, the main stakeholders can’t correctly analyze, recognize, monitor, manage, and map the risk. And that, in turn, makes them incapable of responding to the upcoming threats and leveraging market opportunities.

Even when the situation is favorable, the supply chain transparency helps the business organizations foresee and resolve the supply chain problems faster and proactively. It also helps maintain compliance with the changing regulations and offer an end-to-end insight to optimizing the logistics for more outstanding performance, profit, and efficiency.

3. It would be best if you created a disruption mindset.

Securing the supply chain is not just about diversification, technological intervention, or digitization that the company should pursue. Instead, EJ Dalius says it is all about creating a disruption mindset. The “anti-fragile” or disruption mindset is one that welcomes challenges and ambiguity. It embraces change and can adapt amidst any chaos or complexity.

Additionally, when you have a disruption mindset, you can operate with the assumption that certainty in business is always relative. You start to realize the change is the only constant and that every planning initiatives are merely provisional. These initiatives are also subject to quick revision, depending on the new data. And since the disruptive mindset is both adaptive and agile, the ones who follow it can pivot, devise, and course-correct with novel proactive action strategies. Simply put, a disruptive mindset is one that welcomes learning and gets concerned with winning the game at hand. It also focuses on rewriting the rules for shaping a better and new future.

The business organizations that adapt to this mindset can leverage the benefits, both operationally and culturally. In some companies, this approach recognizes and questions the primary assumptions, motivates competing views, and ensures diversity. It helps to promote updated planning and dynamic supply chain analysis.

Currently, the economy is gradually trying to come back to its normalcy. However, it will take ample time for that to happen. And in this age of escalating disruption, supply chain security needs to be the primary focus of every business organization. And by investing, diversifying in digitization, and creating a disruption mindset, any business organization can weather any unwarranted changes. That is not all. The company can also position itself better in the changing global market.