COVID-19: Six key takeaways for the freight ecosystem

The COVID-19 menace has become a catalyst for organizations across the world to revisit their supply chain networks, examine its vulnerabilities and build resilience. 

As your business gears up for the world beyond coronavirus, you might be facing questions such as how to emerge stronger from this crisis? How to maintain business stability in the post-COVID world? Is it possible to gain a competitive advantage while recovering from the setback? 

If you focus on the right strategies that fortify your business for today and tomorrow winning this battle is not too far-fetched.   

Here are six key takeaways that will help you navigate better in the world beyond the pandemic:

Time for proactive crisis management for the freight ecosystem

The present crisis is a stark reminder that we need proactive and not reactive crisis management. A proactive approach stands on a well-planned and collaborative ground where teams are in a better position to handle disruptions. 

Readiness to respond to disruptions cannot be achieved overnight and requires a flexible ecosystem. Adopting a proactive approach means diversifying sources, having a system that facilitates remote working, fully understand one’s network and having thorough supply chain visibility on operations. Undoubtedly, the post-COVID world will leave behind those with limited appetite for flexibility and diversification. 

Supply chain visibility matters the most 

Your immediate response to the pandemic should be focusing on improving visibility over your supply chains and extended networks. Companies that have visibility across their supply network have responded well to the crisis by making specific decisions. They are in the position to sense, respond and even predict how their supply chains will react to disruptions.  

Without supply chain visibility, it is impossible to understand and assess the impact of disruptions. It is as simple as this, you cannot prevent or manage a problem without knowing where it lies. 

Also check out sailing schedule, a smart tool to make smart decisions while planning the movement of your freight.

There is no escaping from digitisation in the Freight ecosystem

Even before we stepped into the coronavirus crisis, trends like digitisation and automation were doing rounds. But with the present crisis, these trends are sure to become a norm. 

With Digitisation and automation, you can: 

• Enhance information sharing
• Increase the autonomy of your supply chains
• Gain more visibility and transparency
• Drive process efficiencies
• Save time and costs
• Facilitate remote working 
• Make faster and better decisions

And the list goes on…The bottom line? Cloud-based supply chain platforms are revolutionising this space and using these systems to one’s advantage is an easy path to building a robust supply chain network. 

Instant insights generation to lead the way 

The new world is going to be volatile in every way one can think of and predicting events amid such uncertainties can be challenging. This is where the power of rapidly generated insights steps in. 

Develop a capacity or adapt tools that can give you real-time insights by processing the massive amount of data your supply chain generates. This will help you stay a step ahead of future disruptions and help make well-informed decisions. 

Boost performance by decentralising teams

A decentralised team can respond faster and more efficiently. Once advanced analytics generate insights, these teams can rapidly act on them and navigate through disruptions. 

Overly centralised decision making can hobble your company’s capacity to react quickly. Whereas, a well-planned system that allows the team to prioritise and make the best possible decisions can go a long way.  Not getting one’s priorities right and mediocre management of teams can lead to a bigger disaster in the present times. 

Sustainable businesses make way for stronger supply chains 

The COVID crisis is an opportunity for organisations to adopt more sustainable business models and build stronger supply chains for the future.

Now is the time to consider sustainable freight solutions, better work practices and ethics, improvise communication with your suppliers and adopt all those much-needed changes that you have been wanting to adopt for ages. Rebuild your supply chain in such a way that it stands out from the rest. 

Marching forward 

The crisis has been an expensive learning curve and there is no bigger mistake than failing to learn from it. As companies recover, adapt and retreat they will have to keep the business running for today and equip it for tomorrow. Good leadership with the ability to predict, manage and march forward is sure to overcome the setback.

Now is the time for you to raise your ability to adapt as a company and strive to achieve resilience. 

For a strong, improved and cost-effective supply chain, check out our Freight procurement module and Invoice reconciliation module.