SUPPLY CHAIN
Disruption Management
In the future, better demand-planning tools could help retailers prepare for unexpected surges in categories like toilet paper.
Pandemic Playbook TO SURVIVE IN THE AGE OF COVID-19, RE TAILERS NEED TO WORK TOWARD BUILDING A MORE RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAIN. By Jenny McTaggart he initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States rocked the supermarket world unlike anything else in modern times. Behind the frantic scenes of shoppers fighting over toilet paper, the grocery supply chain was being stretched and bent like never before. “All of a sudden, we found ourselves in a situation where it was like 10 snow days, Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled up into one every day of the week, and then restaurants shut down,” recalls Mark Baum, chief collaboration officer and SVP of industry relations at Arlington, Va.-based FMI - The Food Industry Association. “Demand just soared. It was up double digits, even triple digits in certain categories.” “COVID-19 really raised the importance of the supply chain,” observes Tom Madrecki, VP of supply chain for the Consumer Brands Association (CBA), also based in Arlington. “It went from being an issue that was maybe not front and center within the c-suite or within government to being the issue of the moment.” Ultimately, the chain didn’t break, but some vulnerabilities were revealed —
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Key Takeaways The coronavirus pandemic has revealed vulnerabilities in the supply chain that the food retail industry must figure out how best to address. Demand planning and inventory management solutions, enhanced by machine learning, can bring greater visibility to the supply chain. Companies should also focus on stronger collaboration with suppliers and other partners, both within and outside the industry, and on developing a crossfunctional workforce.
and exposed to consumers — as excess agricultural products ended up being destroyed, certain products became obsolete seemingly overnight and e-commerce programs were suddenly being used more than ever before, revealing a gap in different retailers’ levels of preparedness.