Covid-19 impact on supply chains: Resilient vs. efficient supply chain, re-shoring strategies, suppliers selection

Covid-19 pandemic challenges all the area of living of people in the last year, supply chains were not excluded by it. Restriction measures, global health concerns and drastic-unreasonable demand changes were the main issues supply chains had and still have to face in the most globalized world ever seen. The aim of this work is to understand how the pandemic impacted in the supply chains, the first reactions of companies to minimize the disruption of the production, logistic and supply shock and finally the measures to take in order to prevent future problems. The question of the thesis is, in fact: how do supply chain reacted to pandemic and what can they do to be more resilient? To answer the question, in the first chapter is shown the chronological development of the pandemic, starting from China’s outbreak and its expansion in the rest of the world, keeping in mind the economical context in which the event takes place. In the second chapter is first presented literature about natural disaster, since it is the most similar event to a pandemic in terms of effects. Moreover, are depicted the suggestions to move to a more resilient management of the supply chain and the possible measure to take for supply chain managers. The focus will be on the improvements and weaknesses of actual organization, such as Just in time methodology, in-shoring possibilities and demand management. Finally, in the last chapter, literature has been complemented by a case study of a real company which must face the pandemic impact and the measures the company itself could take to strengthen the supply chain, providing also the economic feasibility of the investments. On this basis, supply chains must still struggle with uncertainty connected to the pandemic situation and will have to change some of their features and strengthen others, to prevent future disruptions. Future researches could take advantage of more specific and updated information on the topic, to understand if the measures taken by companies really improve their resilience.