Coronavirus: How to Manage Your Supply Chain Shock Waves

Supply chains throughout our economy are experiencing volatile shock waves of product supply and demand due to the widespread economic crisis. As a result, customer fulfillment and supplier replenishment is thrown into chaos. Companies must adopt a different way of managing their supply chains to avoid being overwhelmed by these shock waves.

Managers should prioritize customer and supplier segments to focus manual interventions on priority customer segments. They should also adjust current systems to manage order fulfillment and replenishment requisition by setting customer order allocations. This strategic management process should be overseen by a team of heads from Sales, Supply Chain, Supplier/Product Management, and Finance.

By implementing a prioritization and agreed-upon weekly orders process, companies can regain control of the situation and ensure success in both the immediate crisis and the prolonged recovery period that follows. This process is complex and requires involvement from every part of the company, but it is practical and manageable.