The Supply Chain Resilience Report 2021 examines the disruptions organizations have experienced in their supply chain over the past twelve months, top-of-mind concerns for professionals over the next five years, how technology is influencing the supply chain, the consequences of disruption and the uptake and effectiveness of insurance for supply chain losses.

The past 12 months have been unprecedented for organizations all around the world due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects of this can be seen on the impact to supply chains and their management.  

The report shows that more organizations than ever are now using technology to assist with supply chain management and mapping. 55.6% are now using technology to help analyse and report on supply chain disruptions, with the number using technology to help with supply chain mapping seeing a major increase to 40.5% (2019: 22.6%). The uptake of technology was primarily due to COVID-19; 57.6% of organizations admitted that the pandemic has been the main reason for investment in new technology and tools.

Solving the logistics puzzle is set to continue to be a challenge into. COVID-19 affected all methods of transportation. At the start of the pandemic, air freight providers repurposed passenger planes to make up for the lack of belly cargo availability; land transport had faces issues with goods being held up at borders; and sea freight is now struggling with global container shortages. With global vaccine transportation dubbed, the logistic headwinds are likely to continue into 2021 and beyond.

More due diligence should be carried out pre-contract. The report shows that only 1 in 6 organizations carry out due diligence on all key suppliers at the procurement stage; and a quarter fail to do the necessary due diligence on key suppliers’ BC programmes until after contracts have been signed. Ensuring BC arrangements are checked pre-contract is vital to ensuring suppliers can continue to meet contractual requirements during periods of disruption.

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