Did COVID-19 Just Expose Weaknesses, Potential Opportunities in Global Supply Chain?

It's flooding the information everywhere. Governments worldwide scramble to have more surgical masks, ventilators, and gloves to fight coronavirus. Nobody appears to know where to get these items from, nor do they recognize what the actual demand and deliver certainly is.

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At the same time, everyone additionally sees specific consumer goods gadgets at an extremely high demand. China is also trying to get returned to "normal" and restart manufacturing.

However, there is a loss of demand for "non-essential" items they're ready to produce together with cars, fashion, or high-tech merchandise.

The damaged supply chain for lithium batteries

Analysts at S&P's Panjiva Research laid out a grim picture, with the United States sea imports from China down more than 50% in the first three weeks of March, an end result of the national lockdown in China.

At the same time, the subcontracting groups that virtually construct the hardware are thinking about getting out of China entirely, as much as they could. The Verge said Wistron Corp, which does a lot of work for Apple, boasted last week that it can pass as much as half of its commercial enterprise out of doors Chinese borders inside a year.

By looking at the current situation, it's evident that supply chains are damaged. However, there seems to be a problem in the delivery chain for lithium, too.

A Benchmark document laid the quarantine situation for lithium exporters, from Australia to Chile. While there haven't been any extreme shortages yet, mines are having loads of hassle getting shipments out.

"It's not the orders, and it's not the product; it's [about] can we get it shipped?" one mining CEO told The Verge. The result will be plenty less lithium for manufacturers, which will be a massive problem for whatever with a battery.

When the world has a sudden spike in demand, ripple through the multi-tiered supply chain will take time, according to Forbes. The report said adjusting chains would take weeks or months.

Hence, getting inventory out of the delivered chain would take time once everything returns to normal since businesses and the supply chains were not prepared for this pandemic.

The broken chain could be rebuilt

There are some bright spots of great information. Even if certain products aren't always to be had on retail shelves, there isn't a disaster in food supply or consumer products.

Many groups around the sector started to re-motive their manufacturing, with many brewing groups and distilleries generating hand-sanitizers, fashion businesses creating masks, and automotive corporations looking to make ventilators.

Even if a plant can be re-purposed and changed fast, could suppliers deliver to these kinds of new manufacturing locations? The solution is sure, Forbes claim.

Technology would always be there to assist companies in getting this done. There are collaboration competencies that make sure the integrity of the processes and the fine of the product.

So, to answer the question, what's wrong with the delivered chains? They are damaged. Hence, SAP claims the delivery would soon be evolving to a new normal.

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