In this era of the COVID-19 pandemic, with rapid business closures, technology changes and lock-downs in various countries, it is imperative that organizations maintain agile supply chains. Supply chain agility is essentially the ability of organizations to profitably deliver high quality products or services with enhanced value and short lead times. It is the ability to move quickly and easily. It is about how an organization reacts to the fast changing world and unpredictable future to remain in business. Management has had to make momentary decisions, learn more and faster and execute even more quickly than ever before, which has put a lot of stress on their supply chain functionality.
Supply chain agility may be structural (based on overall capabilities of the supply chain network and organization) or operational (based on complementary capability delivered by decision making about scheduling and utilizing supply chains). Agility of supply chains allows management in organizations to respond faster to unpredictable situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic situation which has affected demand and supply. However, a faster response alone cannot guarantee survival, without consideration for cost, quality, return on net assets and customer service. To achieve agility, one needs to establish: “How fast can the supply chain respond to demand or supply changes?’, ‘How much change in demand or supply can the supply chain absorb and within what time period?’ and ‘How quickly can new products or services be designed, produced and distributed?”
However, to achieve supply chain agility with controlled costs, it requires a streamlined, collaborative process facilitated with appropriate technology. To add to this, there should be effective planning within the organization, team alignment and end-to-end visibility for supply chain agility to occur.
Hamidah Babirye Nsereko, PhD
Assistant Director
Contracts Management and Monitoring Office
Office of the Principal