The coronavirus in China has killed 361 people and infected 17,205 people there, The Associated Press reports Monday according to Chinese health officials’ update.
The effort to stem the spread has limited travel and business traffic, so companies are having to check on their supply chains to plan for any disruptions.
Spend Matters Europe’s Editor Nancy Clinton heard from risk experts at Resilinc and others to advise businesses on handling this crisis.
Spend Matters analyst Magnus Bergfors noted that procurement technology into risks and supplier management can help in these tough situations.
“This outbreak, and the consequences of it, shows the importance of having visibility and control over your supply chain and not necessarily only you first-tier suppliers,” Bergfors said. “And listening to the experts, it seems like we unfortunately will see more of these types of horrific events that will impact our increasingly complex and sensitive supply chains. So if you are in the manufacturing space and haven’t invested in supply chain visibility and risk management capabilities, now is the time!”
Bindiya Vakil, Founder and CEO of Resilinc, gave an interesting and informed online talk about what we know and what firms need to be thinking about to help avoid supply chain disruption as much as possible. She also reminded us of the disruption at a humanitarian level too. Millions of people are affected as several cities there are locked down. China is building medical facilities and is dealing with a shortage of some medical supplies.
But she also stressed the importance of investing in business continuity, because companies with better foresight can act quickly. Firms that haven’t done this, she said, are most vulnerable.
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