Mr Deji Ogunde, Senior Procurement Manager (Logistics, Indirect & 3rd Party Manufacturing), PZ Cussons Nigeria, has given some tips on how firms with supply chain can respond better to unforeseen changes.
According to him, this is important following the disruptions that affected companies as a result of the sudden COVID-19 pandemic.
Ogunde spoke in Lagos on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Haulage and Logistics Magazine Annual Conference and Exhibition (HAULMACE 2022) where he was a keynote speaker.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the event was “Developing an Adaptive Framework in the Nigerian Haulage and Logistics Industry:an Imperative for Stability in a Vuca Environment”.
“A pre-pandemic research found that on the average, companies experience a disruption of one to two months in duration every 3.7 years.
“It also said that 94 per cent of the Fortune 1,000 companies had their supply chain disrupted due to COVID-19.
“Some of the external and environmental risk factors responsible for this are political, economic, sociological, technological, environmental and legal factors.
“However, firms with supply chain agility could respond better to unforeseen changes as they are able to better synchronise supply with demand.
“Synchronisation of supply and demand requires integration across a firm’s internal functions as well as its suppliers and customers.’’
He recommended innovation, technology and data, collaboration and strong and competent workforce as key priorities for supply chains alongside resilience, agility, sustainability.
Ogunde said that active attention had become a key requirement in preparing for high impact as well as low predictability risks rather than only contingency planning.
He also emphasised the importance of having an entirely revamped or new supply chain for sustainability.
Ogunde said that active attention had become a key requirement in preparing for high impact as well as low predictability risks rather than only contingency planning.
He also emphasised the importance of having an entirely revamped or new supply chain for sustainability.
Some of the recent distruptive events Ogunde identified included COVID-19 lockdown, Suez canal blockage, war (E.g the food crises from Ukraine war), flood as has been experienced in 20/36 states in Nigeria.
“Also, the currency swap projected for December 2022 in Nigeria, record inflation rate in 17 years, record USD/N devaluation and energy cost increase.’’
Ogunde also recommended firms to invest in supply chain resilience, whereby the supply chain of firms would have the ability to prepare for and/or respond to disruptions to make a timely and cost effective recovery.
According to him, this will ensure progress to a post-disruption state of operations. (NAN)
