Sailing through streamlined supply
The past two years have been nothing short of a supply chain orchestral headway, with every industry falling under a production limbo. Even the most diverse and “integrated” value chains found it hard to sustain as global lockdowns and local restrictions halted operations.
These supply chain bottlenecks were further reflected in higher prices via increased freight costs and inadequate availability of raw material forming backward linkages, which then disturbed forward linkages in the product cycle – in short, a domino effect.
Within this, a mixed policy interplay and brewing inflation further exacerbated the music, calling for large-scale reforms.
Be it India or the rest of the world, this was not a one-time event that blew value chains down. Covid-induced problems came as a reality check that brought upon many long-standing gaps into the limelight.
While the initial years and waves brought about a whirlwind of chaos, the lessons learned toward managing futuristic operations have been invaluable.
Our paper, Sailing through streamlined supply, studies the supply chain story across India, analyzing it from both a macro and micro perspective.
What exactly happened to industrial chains when covid hit? Why did the gaps occur? Could they have been negated? How were they ironed out? What else remains to be done?
Mazars believes that while a lot has been done to normalize operations within the first two waves, the long-run supply chain model requires streamlining a shock-absorbent network on both an intra- and inter-business front. This includes integrating the 5-layer supply chain management approach within businesses, as well as adopting risk-management tools like hedging and node-diversification across the value ecosystem.
