Breaking the Supply Chain: How COVID-19 Changed Shipping Forever

Over the past decade, the importance of “supply chain” to core business strategy has risen dramatically. No longer a back-office cost center, it has quickly become a competitive advantage.

Ecommerce drove a lot of this change — COVID-19 supercharged it.   

Over the past year, the pandemic put supply chains to the test. In perhaps no other industry was this more evident than consumer packaged goods (CPG). 
 

Short-term panic buying, long-term impacts 

Early stage panic buying in the spring of 2020 made CPG supply chains kitchen table conversation, as people ran into toilet paper, disinfectant and grocery shortages.

Buying patters have been dramatically altered — some permanently — and companies and industries nationwide are grappling with their impact.

Add in supplier and service provider changes, worker health and safety precautions, and there is an obvious demand for manufacturers, retailers, carriers, government officials and other supply chain stakeholders to rethink shipping.

To help add insight to the conversation on what the supply chain of the future will look like, we teamed up with Accenture and the Consumer Brands Association to create this original research study, based on interviews with over 20 leading CPG shippers.
 

In this original study, you will learn:

• 4 things the pandemic taught CPG shippers
• How to build a resilient supply chain
• The potential bottom line impact realized with better supply chain
• Why we need to evolve from linear chains to collaborative networks
• 9 supply chain technologies, including where we’re at today, and where it needs to be.

Perhaps the most dramatic changes we have ever seen are now happening on the supply and demand sides of today’s supply chains, and there is no end to volatility in sight.

Consumer goods companies must evolve to retain relevance. They must transform the supply chain into a supply network that is connected, intelligent, customer-centric, collaborative, sustainable and resilient.

To get there, leaders will need to make hard choices that are informed by data — downloading this study is a good start.