Discover the value in Supply Chain flexibility, like the ability to easily adjust production levels, raw-material purchases, and transport capacity.
Supply chain professionals are well accustomed to facing the unexpected in difficult circumstances, and the global COVID-19 pandemic has increased the stakes. Worldwide lockdowns have put tremendous pressure on supply chains, exposing faults and revealing what is truly needed to keep a global economy functioning. While demand for some products has surged, leaving suppliers scrambling, demand has evaporated completely for others.
Supply chain flexibility – the ability to easily adjust production levels, raw-material purchases, and transport capacity – has immense benefits compared to traditional supply chain management. A traditional approach to supply chain management is rigid and does not allow for rapid changes as needed. This is known to cause disruptions to the entire supply chain when demand spikes or plummets or when there is a holdup in the supply chain. Flexibility in the supply chain allows it to function by accommodating the day-to-day changes that naturally occur.
Supply chain professionals must navigate challenges using a platform that distills meaningful insight from vast amounts of high-quality data. This enables scenario modeling, multi-echelon inventory optimization (MEIO), and other advanced applications that build flexibility into supply chain planning and allow the end-to-end impact of any pivot to be quickly assessed.