Many Were Unprepared for COVID-19's Disruptions, Says Microsoft Supply Chain Expert

COVID-19 disruptions in the Chinese supply chain caught some U.S. importers off guard, Microsoft’s top logistics point man told an IHS Markit webinar. The vast majority of them had an “urgent, knee-jerk reaction,” said David Warrick, Microsoft general manager-global supply chain. “Most companies were not actually prepared for the size, scale or longevity” of the pandemic, he said Tuesday. It’s extremely difficult to navigate through the crisis “if you don’t have the visibility in the first instance,” said Warrick. “You have to understand what’s going on to be able to impact it and affect it.” Many companies before the pandemic shied away from building “visibility tools” into their supply chains because they feared “an enterprise-level investment,” said Warrick. “It feels like it’s millions of dollars that has to be done for a multiyear plan to be able to bring this type of technology to the fore.” But, such tracking is available in a “plug-and-play” fashion and can be installed as an “overlay” on existing supply chain “infrastructure,” said Warrick.