Supply Chain Fundamental Rethinking

An unprecedented inflation in commodities has created an equally unprecedented situation for enterprises. In India, the WPI has consistently been in double digits over past 15 months or so & CPI has been in single digits, indicates that the enterprises have absorbed larger part of input cost inflation. Supply Chain teams, particularly the Sourcing / Procurement teams have experienced a phenomenon that most of the practitioners have never experienced within their working life - a pandemic followed by sudden spurt in demand followed by trade barriers followed by geopolitical conflicts and in all that an unforeseen material inflation. Post the first few months of pandemic, commodity prices have shot out of the roof, post the Ukraine - Russia conflict even Oil is up 60% or so, agricultural commodities in some case have doubled. During these challenging periods enterprises ability to pass on the input cost to its end consumer has been limited due a post pandemic recovery period. Now wit...

Supply Chains have always been focused rather obsessed with customer order fulfillment. Focus of Supply Chain Network design has predominantly been around the "last mile" delivery. Adding nodes to the network, latest technology adoption and many other initiatives have been about improving last mile delivery.  Is it time to also re-focus & offer consideration for "First mile delivery"? Particularly in industries where the first mile may have the highest delta impact on the customer. e.g. In Healthcare, the first mile is the most crucial one for the customer,who in this case is a Patient (particularly in emergency cases). From the time the patient has a health issue which needs attention till the time medical care is made available is the first mile in this case. For example they say first hour is the "Golden Hour" for a person who has an health emergency. In that case even if the last mile delivery, which in this case may be a well equipped hospital, is...