Managing Supply Chain Disruption During COVID-19

As someone working in healthcare, I was practically clueless on issues outside the clinical, hospital, and/or the immediate community served by our efforts. Although I feel that I am quite late to the party compared to a lot of people involved perhaps more directly or apparently to it, taking this course sparked my interest in the “threads that bind” the entirety of the modern global society – supply chains – and how its behavior or disruption can either be the cause or effect of breakdowns in local, national, and international levels. I developed a newfound appreciation of this backdrop processes that make possible the increasing sophistication, convenience and efficiency of our current lives. Interestingly, after finishing the lectures of this material (completing the entire course took more time for me because of the final peer-graded assignment, which I find justifiable), I frequently hear more of “just-in-time inventory”, “lean inventory” and “bullwhip effect” in my subsequent readings and endeavors outside this MOOC. This probably reflects an increase in my curiosity to understand more of related topics afterward.

What made the course work for me perhaps are the pressing circumstances that led to the offering of the MOOC and its scenario coverage referring to the COVID-19 global health emergency. The disruption that we all felt in terms of supply shortages for various medical and non-medical materials made more sense for me in the context of supply chain issues from the commodity supplier to the final end customer/client. I recommend this offering to everyone interested in understanding some technical/logistical realities that inevitably affect all of us.