The impact of Covid-19 on global upstream and downstream supply chain management activities

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has affected thousands of people worldwide; with significant economic changes in the past and to the changes to be made for future. Many organisations especially; The Intergovernmental economic organisation (OECD - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) warned the companies and industries on the global economic cut, the corona virus will be boarding. The global economy and international markets pitched down with the spread of corona virus spreading from China which is the world’s second largest economy to other countries including Asia; Europe; Australia; Europe; America and the Middle East. Many economies came up with many policies to prevent the further spread of this virus; including restrictions on travel and quarantines; which has disrupted international supply chains affecting a lot of business operations and dwindle revenues. About 75 percent of business including Wholesale; Manufacturing; Retail and Services in China and about 51,000 companies have this impact at a global level according to data from Dun and Bradstreet. The success or failure of every Business depends on how well they manage their supply chain management activities. The impact of corona virus on supply chain activities is twofold. One is; Upstream Supply chain management where companies should monitor the backward integrated activities in procuring the inventory; which has accommodated a loss in the production because of closure of factories and a slowdown in the economy. Second is; Downstream Supply chain management where the intermediaries and middlemen face a lot of problems because of scarcity in inventory and many quarantine measures taken by many economies. Many disruptions in both Upstream and Downstream Supply chains lead to severe scarcity of inventory which was experienced globally by all the economies. This situation has made many economies to think of the inter connectivity and inter dependency among global nations in terms of supply chain. This article is aimed to highlight the effects and changes COVID-19 pandemic has brought in the supply chain industry from both Upstream and Downstream perspective.