LM reader survey examines impact of pandemic on supply chain

While many Americans have received the COVID-19 vaccine, the long-term impact of the pandemic on logistics and supply chain operations has remained top of mind for industry stakeholders. That was made clear in the findings of a recent Logistics Management reader survey, based on feedback from more than 220 logistics and supply chain professionals.

Not surprisingly, 72% of the survey’s respondents indicated that the pandemic had a major impact on their logistics and supply chain operations, with the remaining 28% indicating that was not the case.

For the former, the reasons for which the pandemic had a major impact were plentiful, including: additional supply chain costs; lack of available labor; extended lead times; tight international ocean and air cargo capacity; longer transit times; increased demand and volumes that were hard to keep up with; shipping delays; and extended delays for goods coming from China that forced the allocation of inventory for outbound orders.

One shipper put it this way: “First, it made an impact on how we manage the pressure on supply chain costs. Second, we were dealing with unpredictable demand. And third, we had longer lead times.” While these things are not new, it was clear that the situation created new challenges for shippers—and in many different ways.

When asked if the changes in supply chains “could be permanent,” 60% indicated that would not be the case, while 40% maintain that the changes could indeed be long lasting. One prevalent theme for this question was that shippers feel that they’re better prepared for future disruptions that could arise.

Other significant “lessons learned” touched upon things like the planned continued use of pandemic safety protocols; multi-sourcing; increased tele-work for applicable positions; and an improved focus on business continuity planning.

“I believe that things like the redundancy of shipping and 3PL usage across the U.S. will now become a standard to guard against things like pandemics and natural disasters and help protect our customers,” said an MRO product distributor.

Another factor to monitor has to do with how the supply chain will react from seeing many consumers stuck at home making e-commerce purposes to more of a service economy as more and more go to restaurants, movies, and sporting events.

“There is an expectation that once things are fully back open, you’re going to see a bit of a shift in consumer spending, but I think that’s welcome,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and Customs policy for the National Retail Federation (NRF). “As consumers go out and take vacations, they’re going to want to go and buy things for that. There will still be some retail spending based upon those new habits as well, which is important for us in getting back to normal and is critical.”

生产总值(gdp)的总裁拉里·格罗斯运输欺诈万博ag客户端appsulting, agrees with Gold in that the general economy is in for a strong stretch of growth—with a shift away from goods and more towards services. “When we were quarantining and telecommuting, we became acutely aware of the shortcomings of that situation, and there was no other outlet for their money, aside from online spending,” he said. “Now, there’s this pent-up demand getting released that’s going to change the mix of the recovery.”

What’s more, Gross said that there will be a bit of what he called “a tug-of-war” between how fast the economy is growing—which represents upward pressure for freight—and a change in mix towards services—which represents downward pressure for freight. However, he added that he doesn’t expect freight pressure acceleration from this point, which he said the industry can’t handle operationally given the continued tight capacity situation.