Supply chain issues are spread across industries and countries. For small businesses, it can be a challenge keeping popular items stocked and dealing with impatient customers if you have a retail outlet or an e-commerce store. However, you can still make things better if you can develop a concrete strategy to avert some of the problems and keep the operations of your business running smoothly. Here are some supply chain management strategies to get you started.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the modern supply chains as just a house of cards that can collapse when they are put under pressure. Many businesses caught flat-footed by lockdowns and restrictions of movements have found the recovery process difficult to navigate. The clogged ports and shortages of materials resulted in backlogs across the supply chain hubs. While things are starting to unwind, trade channels continue to face challenges making it hard for operations to return to normal. Assuming that a new wave of the virus does not emerge, the worst-hit industries are expected to recover at the beginning of 2023 or the end of this year.

The supply chain is undoubtedly one of the most crucial parts of any business. For this reason, most executives believe that getting the supply chain right will translate to better supply chain costs. This is not an easy task considering the supply chain is a series of discrete siloed steps that are taken through marketing, development, manufacturing and distribution of a product to the hands of a customer. However, with digitization, the siloes are broken. The chain becomes an integrated, transparent ecosystem for each player, from raw material suppliers, components suppliers and transporters of finished products to the customers who demand fulfillment.