REWIRING THE THEMSELVES FOR THE FUTURE SUPPLY CHAIN

LESS THAN A WEEK after the government announced a nationwide lockdown in March 2020, Seshagiri Rao M.V.S. came to terms with a harsh reality. “We realised how fragile our supply chain was,” says the Joint MD and Group CFO of JSW Steel.

For as long as he can remember, the norm in the industry was to have inventory to last for three days. “There was never a need to have it for a week or anything more,” he explains. The nature of the problem now meant that while the product needed was available, it could not be supplied. For someone who had spent decades in the manufacturing industry, the need to strengthen his supply chain stared him in the face. A lot of good work had been done so far but the level of preparedness for a different business environment was a big challenge.

You just need to pick a sector at random and the disruption of the supply chain and putting together a new one is the dominant story. Be it FMCG, pharmaceuticals, paints, auto components, steel or anything for that matter, it plays out in the same manner. A serious transformation is necessary for sheer survival and if it involves an overhaul of the status quo, so be it. The rewiring of the supply chain will be the overarching theme for a long time as businesses attempt to keep themselves relevant in the present and