| Pub. Date | : Dec 21 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJSCM31221 |
| Author Name | : Gilles Pache |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Strategic |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 10 |
The Covid-19 health crisis that has affected the world's economies highlights the structural fragility of global supply chains. In just a few days in the Spring of 2020, the paralysis of transport systems and numerous supply disruptions highlighted the disastrous effects of the accelerated and uncontrolled globalization of good exchanges. For several decades, many observers welcomed the progress of logistics in the service of unlimited economic development. According to Cleary and McLarney (2021), for example, increasingly sophisticated supply chain technologies are expected to improve process performance in the service of an overall quality. At the same time, the Covid-19 health crisis has underlined major weaknesses in the functioning of supply chains, with organizations at the mercy of mere "grains of sand". This research note questions the collective capacity to learn the lesson and to think of a different organizational model in the coming years.
Thus, a year before the beginning of the health crisis, Fabbe-Costes and Rouquet (2019) published a book in France on the logistical revolution that had taken place since World War II. The authors introduced the stimulating notion of "logistization" to emphasize the extent to which the internationalization of markets was the result of perfect control of global supply chains. However, in just a few days, "logistization" was to be undermined by a simple coronavirus from a country presented as the workshop of the world, China. The economies of Europe and North America are highly dependent on China in key sectors such as the automotive, textile and pharmaceutical industries: 80% of the active ingredients used in medicines are currently manufactured in China, and also in India (Fulconis and Pache, 2020). The resulting situation of dependence is undeniable when supplies are threatened by a major breakdown.