Supply chains under COVID-19 disruptions: literature review and research agenda

ABSTRACT

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has massively disrupted supply chains at the global and local scales resulting in economic slowdown and social issues. To respond to these changes, supply chains need to quickly adapt to the new situation. This paper presents a review of literature that addresses supply chains under disruptions due to COVID-19 pandemic. Papers are classified based on issues addressed. The major findings or recommendations are discussed. These include the rising importance of safety, digitalisation, localisation, the need to revisit the meaning of efficiency, and the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. We show that most mitigation actions proposed prior to COVID-19 such as redundancy and flexibility are still considered as possible strategies to mitigate supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19, but there are stronger pressures for digitalisation and supply-based localisation. The research agenda is also outlined at the end of the paper.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• supply chain
• disruption
• mitigation
• review

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

I Nyoman Pujawan

I Nyoman Pujawan is Professor of Supply Chain Engineering at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Surabaya, Indonesia. His papers have appeared in many international journals including the European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Production Planning and Control, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, Business Process Management Journal, among others. He is an active consultant for various supply chain and logistics related industry problems (has involved in over 40 consulting projects).

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9587-8152

Alpha Umaru Bah

Alpha Umaru Bah was born in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. He received a Bachelor degree of Science degree with Honors in Accounting and Finance in May 2015. In October 2015, he was employed as a funds transfer officer at Zenith Bank Sierra Leone Limited in Freetown. Due to his outstanding performance, he was promoted to an enterprise risk management officer in 2016 where his responsibilities grew more complex. In August 2018, he left his role at the bank to pursue his academic journey in Indonesia, funded by the Indonesian government to study a master programme in Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember in Surabaya.