Supply chain crisis: Asia rethinks ‘just-in-time’ strategy as pandemic upends logistics industry

• Pandemic-era disruptions have upended distribution networks and exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains from Hong Kong to Singapore to Australia

• Businesses are starting to stockpile more and diversify their suppliers, as regional governments look to shore up supplies of raw materials and essential goods

Running a distribution business is a juggling act at the best of times, but when the pandemic arrived Singapore-based Yeap Medical Supplies found itself with a lot more balls in the air.

Across Asia, businesses have had to rethink how they operate and develop new strategies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, as shipping bottlenecks and supply chain disruptions upended established models of doing business.

Minimising inventory costs was the order of the day pre-pandemic, with companies often relying on “just-in-time” supply chains to provide goods when they were needed instead of stockpiling them.