COVID-19 Supply Chain

Introduction

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic demonstrates that epidemics and pandemic can bring about extreme damage to the world’s supply chains. The present-day society has negatively been impacted by an unprecedented disease pandemic on the society in general, though, also on the business of supply chain as well as its operations. In the majority of the cases, these disruptive impacts generate ripple impacts. While the supply chains throughout the world. Although SCs around the world have already been affected by pandemics and epidemics, an unforeseen, comprehensive disruptive COVID-19 epidemic outbreak is considered a new form of highly infectious coronavirus, with adverse impacts. However, this essay mainly focuses on analyzing a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1268&v=Br0FqIuWAHA&feature=emb_title, and explaining what I have learned, and how I think this Online learning will be of great benefit to me in the future.

Lesson Learned

The coronavirus disease was initially confirmed in Wuhan, China, in the year 2019. According to the online class, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Hubei province was 4.52% deaths, while the rest of China had 0.92% deaths. This was due to delayed testing, overwhelmed medical facilities, and many undiagnosed infections. Because of this enormous growth, the outbreak was declared a world pandemic by WHO (World Health Organization) on 11^th March. Some countries affected include Italy, with 7.3% deaths, South Korea with 0.9%, Switzerland with o.6% deaths, and Denmark with 0.1%. However, some countries experience no death because they took drastic measures in preventing the COVID-19 outbreak. These countries include Bahrain, Israel, Qatar, Singapore, and Finland.

From the video, I have learned that COVID-19 has mainly brought about business disruptions. This is because the pandemic has affected China’s demand and supply, affecting the supply of the rest of the universe. In other words, China experienced a reduction in demand because extreme recession could be brought about by both social distancing and fear. I have also learned about COVID-19’s Bullwhip Effect, which explains the most vulnerable groups to the businesses impacted by the supply chain. I have learned that the consumer, retailers, distributors, producers, supply, first-tier suppliers, and the second Tier Supplier will be affected differently, thus prompting extreme damages to the upstream suppliers.

With regard to business disruption, the retail sales of the United States reduced by 12%, while the manufacturing inventories and manufacturing sales reduced by 15% and 30%, respectively. Besides, the Chinese factories experienced closure due to the outbreak. Since most factories around the globe import their goods from China, their businesses were influenced since they could no longer receive the goods from China. Thus, in the context of severe business disruptions, manufacturers were forced to close either partially or wholly, airports started operating in punitive restrictions, and besides, a considerable lot of industries like electronics, automotive, consumer goods, and medical equipment experienced ripple impacts.

Nonetheless, there have been reduced storage spaces for finished goods in factories worldwide to much-reduced movement throughout the supply chain. Also, the companies mentioned above are now experiencing delays of not less than three weeks in manufacturing the end products because of workforce and materials shortage.  For instance, since China is regarded as the world’s factory, the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic to the business supply chains throughout the world began there before they spread to other countries. Generally, these extreme ripple effects resulting from this pandemic need different measures and strategies.

From the link provided, I have learned several measures that a company can implement to curb the COVID-19 impacts. These impacts are as follows: Firstly, the impact can be avoided by developing emergency management centers where information is stored and company decisions made. This center will also help monitor the business’ ecosystem as well as the employees’ welfare. In other words, an emergency management center will be of great significance in curbing the COVID-19 outbreak since it will be able to monitor and address all the issues experienced by employees, suppliers, customers, analysts, shareholders, the media, and the community in general. Secondly, companies can curb the above COVID-19 impacts by reviewing the company’s suppliers (i.e., supplier mapping, the inventory levels, and the customers being served) and reviewing their customers and suppliers. With regard to reviewing the company’s suppliers, I have learned that for a company to survive during these times of pandemic, it should be able to watch for degradation of its company products, fake supplies, the company’s financial health, late deliveries, and supporting its important suppliers by ensuring they do not go bankrupt.

The benefit of Online Learning during the COVID-19 pandemic Period

Online learning is a rational choice and would be of great significance to me during this COVID-19 period. As a learner, this is a beneficial learning technique that can sharpen my skills when handling a complicated project or studying new skills (Rapanta et al., 2020). With the recent worldwide lockdown of colleges and universities due to the pandemic, the implementation of online learning by the school will enable me to continue with my education while away from campus. Generally, this will be of great significance to me both in the present day and in the future through the following ways:

Flexibility

Online learning will help my professor and I to set our own pace for learning. Besides, there is an added suppleness of creating a learning schedule that fits every person’s agenda (Dhawan, 2020). Consequently, using this platform will enable better studies and work balance. Thus there will be no need to giving somethings up. Through this, I will develop my time management skills that make getting a good balance between work and study much easier. Setting up a common schedule and agenda between my teacher and I can prompt us to accept the new duties assigned to us and be more independent in the years to come.

It is accessible

Online learning will help me learn from anywhere around the world. Meaning, I will not be commuting from home to school or following a school’s strict schedule. Besides, I will be able to save time and be able to save money that can be used to settle other bills.

It is more inexpensive than traditional learning.

Unlike traditional (in-person) learning techniques, online education is much affordable; also, there are many times a wide range of paying options that will allow me to pay per class or installments. This permits better management of my budgets. In other words, there are lesser monetary investments when compared to traditional learning (Norman, 2016).

Sharing of expertise and career advancement

The online type of learning during this COVID-19 crisis will grant me access to a specialized degree course by continuing with my studies even after the lockdown.  Also, it will enable me to share my expertise with my colleagues, thus helping me master the class concepts (Rapanta et al., 2020). Alternatively stated, with online classes, I will be able to control my learning environment that would ultimately help me develop a deeper comprehension of my degree course. Also, it will provide me with a golden opportunity to complete the degree I am currently pursuing at school. Generally, the future of an online degree learning looks auspicious and is opening up education to a larger population section than before.

Responsibility and Self-discipline

Online learning needs more time management skills and self-motivation since I will spend less or no time with a professor or supervisor to physically keep me focused on the deadline (Rapanta et al., 2020). I will be able to learn about COVID-19 impacts on supply chains and help me be more self-motivated. Commonly, self-motivation is a character that will help me stand-out in my class and also my place of work in the future.

Documentation

Lastly, all the information that I will need will be securely stored in the online database. This encompasses things such as training emails and materials and live discussion documents (Dhawan, 2020). This implies that if there is anything that I will ever need to clarify in the future, I will access the documents immediately to save as much time as possible. This will be particularly useful when carting out research for a project and submitting my findings to the panel.

Conclusion

In summary, this paper has involved going through an MIT video about the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain. The video explains how the pandemic has impacted the business and the supply chains throughout the world. The video has also highlighted and explained several ways in which a company can survive during this COVID-19 crisis time. Therefore, with the help of video, I have highlighted what I have learned and how the type of learning used (i.e., online learning) will be beneficial to me in the future.

References

Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

Norman, S. (2016) 5 Advantages of Online Learning: Education Without Leaving Home. eLearning Industry [online]. Retrieved from: https://goo.gl/jzzyUV.

Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Guàrdia, L., & Koole, M. (2020). Online university teaching during and after the Covid-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. Post-digital Science and Education, 2(3), 923-945.

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1268&v=Br0FqIuWAHA&feature=emb_title.