Resilient parts of logistic chains as a way to survive the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Abstract

Today, the global syntactic world marked by digitization, biotechnology and permeates almost every area of socio--economic functioning of individuals and organizations. On the one hand, accelerating the “heartbeat” of multiplicative change, the wealth of information as well as the knowledge of generations stimulates development, and heralds the arrival of Society 5.0 and Economy 5.0. But on the other hand, wars together with climatic and biological disasters cause economic slowdown up to the state of emergence. The black swan pandemic, or SARS-CoV-2, will trigger a wave of change. Global delivery systems implemented by interconnected entities have been put to the test. The stoppage of production in factories, the suspension of transports and the inability to move people due to international lockdown have forced the managers of global supply chains to redefine their methods of operation. The key to surviving these difficult days is resilience, which together with flexibility and sensitivity, by its nature, is able to cope with changes, especially those with quantification of risk occurring in a discontinuous environment. The aim of the article is to discuss ways to maintain competitive advantage based on the concept of resilient supply chain in the face of the omnipresent threat that is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Data for this purpose was obtained from both secondary and primary sources by means of a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology. The literature allowed for employment of monographic methods, specifically content analysis. The comparative case study technique was applied to obtain the primary material. We used the collected material to prepare the guidelines for adapting the methods of supply chain management to new challenges – not only in the post-pandemic reality, but above all in the uncertain future, in which enterprises operating within the structures of supply chains may face more than one “swan” threat.

Keywords: resilient supply chains, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, flexibility and adaptation, digitization and automation, competitive advantage

Introduction

The future of logistics and supply chains is built primarily upon the foundation of IT tools. The fourth industrial revolution, which the literature refers to as Industry 4.0, indicates new directions for the development of not only logistics but the entire industry. Innovativeness in the entire logistics industry was put to the test during the pandemic. Technological investments have proven crucial, however, it was clear that organizational relations, which comprise the base of logistics functioning, were a vital element for business continuity.