Trend vision Oracle: Radical changes in supply chain

The coronavirus crisis has turned the market on its head and businesses have found themselves confronted with a new reality. Above all, the crisis has demonstrated the crucial importance of continuous innovation and the ability to respond rapidly to changing circumstances.

“COVID-19 has completely changed everything, and more than I ever would have thought possible a few months ago,” says Marcel Kars, Head of SCM Sales Western Europe at Oracle. “Virtually all the trends from before the COVID-19 era have become irrelevant. Whereas supply chain managers used to be asked to reduce inventory by 10% each year, for example, the situation is now very different.”
Two things have fundamentally changed, according to him: “Companies have realized that they must be prepared for serious disruption at all times, and that they need control and visibility of the end-to-end supply chain in order to emerge from a crisis as the winner. If not, you might not survive because you don’t have enough time to adapt. You’ve got to make the best of what you have, and that’s a key difference with before.”

Faster

“In practice we’re seeing the need to bring products to market faster, to safeguard production reliability and to be able to scale up or relocate production against external forces and the ability to intervene in production processes if necessary. Moreover, that resilience is needed whenever the workforce happens to be at that time.”
To make things even more complicated, companies today need insight into not only their own supply chain but also the supply chains of their suppliers. “In effect, you can outsource everything apart from responsibility. So you must have visibility of everything that is essential to the success of your supply chain. In this context, emerging technologies such as blockchain are very valuable.”