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Everything you need to know as a business owner navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Secure your Supply chain- step by step guide

Disruptions happen. Leading supply chain organizations utilize enhanced risk management processes.

eCommerce Integrations

Short-term actions: Now

Develop a high risk for supply chain disruption monitoring and response programs for countries impacted by the virus and potential supply chain exposure from tier 1 and below. If lower tier transparency is missing, start building up the program and prioritize discovery to get a full picture rapidly. It’s also important to assess how customer spending might be affected. The next step is to make sure all inventory is within reach and outside impacted areas and logistical hubs. Additionally, supply chain leaders should work with their legal and HR departments to understand any financial implications of not being able to deliver supply to customers and provide guidance to employees located in the impacted areas.
eCommerce Platforms

Midterm-actions: This quarter

In the midterm, the focus should be on balancing supply and demand as well as building buffer stock. Assess opportunities to diversify the supplier ecosystem and review or create the organization’s overall risk management approach. Work with internal stakeholders and strategic and critical suppliers to establish a congruent risk management approach to monitor and prepare for potential material and manufacturing capacity shortages.
eCommerce Solutions

Long-term actions: This year

Once the initial impacts of the crisis are mitigated, it’s all about foreseeing the next “when.” Supply chain leaders and their teams can, for example, conduct a scenario planning exercise and develop action plans. This is the time to discover or develop alternative sources and diversify value chains. Tackle strategic and concentrated supplies with high value at risk where internal risk capacities to absorb, such as alternative sources, routes, inventory and cash reserves, aren’t sufficient enough to mitigate any major disruption. Being better prepared than the competition might even open new opportunities when the next disruption comes around.

Frequently asked questions

How do we stay afloat as small business owners during these times when raw materials and finished products are stuck at source country, particularly in China?

If you’re having trouble receiving your products from your manufacturer in China, touch base with your Chinese suppliers and/or manufacturers to check on their status and any steps they are taking to maintain operations. Different aparts of the country are handling the situation in their own way. Maintaining an open line of communication ensures you’ll be kept up to date on the latest developments.

According to Elizabeth McGraw, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, risks of coronavirus infection from packages are extremely low, even though the virus could live on surfaces for days.
The World Health Organization has issued similar guidance, saying, "The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.

If you sell internationally and sourcing locally is too costly, disperse your sources into each of your major markets. If these sources are dispersed, the economies of scale are lower and the capital costs are higher, but your transportation costs will be lower. It also spreads the risk. Aggressively evaluate near-shore options to shorten supply chains and increase proximity to customers.
If the majority of your market is local but you’re unable to keep up with the costs of sourcing locally, look for multiple manufacturers and suppliers overseas with competitive pricing that would be able to supply your products to you in the case that your main supplier is facing closures.

Tackle strategic and concentrated supplies with high value at risk where internal risk capacities to absorb, such as alternative sources, routes, inventory and cash reserves, aren’t sufficient enough to mitigate any major disruption. Being better prepared than the competition might even open new opportunities when the next disruption comes around.
It’s impossible to anticipate the arrival of global crises such as the coronavirus outbreak, but business owners can mitigate their impacts by taking supply chain preparedness to a higher level. They should act before a disruption occurs and adjust and execute new plans afterward rather than starting from scratch every time they are plunged into a new crisis.

No. Both countries are anxious to arrest the spread of COVID-19 without choking off the essential flow of trade and commerce in both directions over the Canada-U.S. border, particularly at a time when the economic impact of the escalating global pandemic is expected to be severe.

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