Logistics prone to disruptions
Experts note that industries should take lessons offered by the coronavirus pandemic and prepare for the next major disruption.
“One thing that is constant is change and the vortex of change in supply chain management is gathering the momentum… this makes it exciting and challenging at the same time,” said Carl Lorenz managing director of East Africa for Maersk, adding that players in the industry, as well as industries that heavily depend on supply chain systems, would have to adapt.
He identified three trends that would help players cope.
Among the major disruptions that have come after the Covid-19 hit that has had a major impact in terms of delivery of goods across the world include the Suez Canal blockage in April last year that saw traffic through the canal suspended after the Ever Given ship got stuck and led to congestion in ports across many parts of the world.
More recent is the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has also disrupted supply chains.
“There are three trends that we see at the moment, supply chains are integrating, digitising and decarbonising. Integrating has caught on and supply chains are getting fairly integrated,” he said.
“Digitisation is super important. Before Covid-19 bit, we used to have 1500 customers coming to our office in Mombasa every week to do basic documentation. We have all these products available online and we promoted them during covid-19 and today, we have reduced the foot traffic to 500. We will continue to do that.”
