Speaking at the Frost & Sullivan: Managing Supply Chain Resilience during Covid-19 webinar, the Director of Business Development of SC Fulfil Pte. Ltd., Lawrence Goh said that the Covid-19 outbreakcaught many parties off guard because of the duration, impacts and the virus’s reach.
The first forces of play in the supply chain have affected consumers during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Consumers have lost direction and lose the freedom to move. End users have zero idea when will Covid-19 will be controlled and the mobility has been blocked to avoid spreading the virus, respectively.
The family ties and relationship were affected by the consumers as work-life balance, home-based learning, and Work from Home (WFH) was introduced to the party. This indirectly or directly induced a lot of stress to the environment.
Subsequently, the phenomenon of online shopping, over-indulgence in retail therapy and increasing the purchasing power of the consumer was resulted by the mentioned style of living in the new normal.
Secondly, businesses are one of the major forces of play impacted by the outbreak. Businesses went through the whole year in unchartered territories due to the unpreparedness and rapid spread of the virus.
“The businesses lost big revenues, profitability and consumer footfall. The biggest one is the lost of revenue especially to smaller businesses where they were debating to proceed with digitalisation or to close shop,”
“In managing supply chains, manufacturing was affected by the lack of raw materials, restriction of workers (migrant labour), disruption in other supply chains, processes and workflow, previous forecasts are unfeasible, and machines and equipment running at reduced capacity and even stopped,” added the Managing Director.
In contrast, technology has proven to be affected positively in the new normal. All activities required to advance in the technology prospect. The outbreak is a big push and is having an accelerated rate of adoption for technology and the related bi-products and processes.
Finally, the regulatory bodies have been affected by the virus like in the healthcare sector, industrial sector, and transport sector.
The bodies to cushion the effects of the outbreak have support schemes and grants for individuals and businesses in the sectors involved. Additionally, they proved their relevance in the face of a challenging and changing business and operating environment.
