Title: Disruptions due to COVID-19 - the ultimate stress test for supply chain managers

Authors: Cees J. Gelderman; Janjaap Semeijn; Sierd Feenstra

Addresses: Marketing and Supply Chain Department, Faculty of Management Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands ' Marketing and Supply Chain Department, Faculty of Management Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands ' Marketing and Supply Chain Department, Faculty of Management Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were struggling to maintain an uninterrupted flow of goods and services. Based on expert interviews, we investigate the effectiveness of various solutions and strategies to counter different supply chain disruptions. At the beginning of the pandemic, proactive measures such as stock buffering and dual sourcing proved to be useful in case of upstream disruptions (supply shortages), due to closure or reduced production or distribution. A counterintuitive finding is that reactive measures appear more effective than proactive measures in case of downstream disruptions (demand spikes), due to sudden shifts of demand. Based on our findings we propose several research propositions.

Keywords: COVID-19 response; supply chain disruptions; resilience; supply chain strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISM.2023.133856

International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, 2023 Vol.16 No.4, pp.313 - 336

Received: 09 Mar 2022
Accepted: 31 Oct 2022
Published online: 04 Oct 2023 *

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