How will pharmaceuticals manufacturers stay agile in the post-pandemic world?

Covid-19 has severely impacted the pharmaceutical industry and the supply challenges it has caused looks set to persist for the foreseeable future. Pharmaceutical companies have already experienced drug shortages, cost increases, and delivery performance degradation. In addition to this, mandates by regulatory bodies requiring jurisdictional control and in some cases the adoption of technology that does not support end-to-end supply chain collaboration has contributed to testing times for Pharmaceutical manufacturers.

What organisations have learned from the pandemic is that the more agility is needed and used to counter volatility, the less relevant accuracy becomes. Ultimately, it is a case of striking the right balance and being sufficiently agile to rapidly respond to fast-changing environments. In line with this, companies are setting specific goals to meet their internal objectives for improved customer service, profitability and growth, focusing especially on enhanced innovation, agility and speed.

The pandemic also revealed the vulnerability of long, complicated, and siloed supply chains. When a single country or site went dark, the lack of critical materials and reduced transport capacity forced companies to close down production.

Supply chain leaders and managers will expect the lessons learned to be applied to creating a resilient and agile supply chain that can withstand any disruptions and quickly respond to the crisis. They will also need to understand and quantify risk exposure and develop contingency plans for each disruption scenario. Moreover, when potential future disruptions are identified, manufacturers need to quickly analyse a range of scenarios, assess impact, and make rapid and informed decisions to minimise the impact.

’Be prepared’ – Making smart use of technology

What the pharmaceutical industry needs above all is the ability to reach across the silos that exist in each business to mitigate the impact. Using concurrent supply chain planning, companies can simulate supply chain failures and prepare risk mitigation scenarios in both predictive and preventive ways.

The primary goal is to reduce supply chain risk by providing full visibility and transparency through the extended supply chain. Companies need access to real-time information on status of demand, supply and inventory wherever they are This is a hugely valuable capability, that gives leaders the confidence to make difficult choices during very difficult periods. Decision-makers no longer feel as if they are plunging into darkness as soon as a crisis begins. They have the information they need to do their jobs.

Covid-19 spread around the globe in a matter of weeks, but events like ransomware attacks can overwhelm organisations in minutes, demanding fast but informed responses from senior management. Being able to respond effectively requires similar capabilities in each case.

In the event of a ransomware attack, the ability to plan end-to-end using an advanced cloud-based planning platform can be key both in mitigating the impact of an attack and in helping the supply chain achieve the resilience to recover quickly.

This and many other incidents prove that having digital and integrated planning capabilities amplifies a large organisation’s ability to pin-point where changes are happening in the supply chain. They understand why they are happening and take positive action with much greater clarity and confidence. These are the digital platform capabilities on which the recovery of the industry will depend for future resilience.

 This is the main lesson of the pandemic so far. In just 12 months, the virus is bringing forward years of change in the way organisations conduct business. Many have been studying how their supply chains work and increasing the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions by three to four years. As we emerge from the pandemic, companies will need help to lay the right foundation for such a rapid digitisation journey. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and data analytics are major advances in this field, enabling companies to learn more about, audit, and connect with their entire value chains.

It is inevitable future disruptions will occur, whether through natural calamity, another virus outbreak or a highly penetrative cyber-attack. Nobody can entirely predict the future, nor should they try to plan in minute detail for every eventuality. Organisations must become far more agile, relying on accurate, current data from the entire length of their supply chains. Whatever the months and years to come bring, using the right approach and technology will inject far greater agility and resilience into pharmaceutical companies, enabling them to detect the unexpected early and respond rapidly to counteract the impact. Eventually, companies with agility and resilience can be a step ahead from the competition and are being able to sustain and grow the business in the future unknown. As Charles Darwin said in his book, “On the Origin of Species” about his scientific theory of Natural Selection, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”