Research Scientist Alexis Bateman hosts MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi for an interview to uncover some of the pending supply chain impacts to be expected resulting from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. We will explore how the coronavirus is already impacting supply chains and what the impact may look like in the near future. He will discuss some results from an ongoing survey gauging how corporate supply chains are being impacted, and what decision-makers are doing about it. With these results, Prof. Sheffi will advise how companies should respond in the near term and what this means for future disruptions. There will be a brief opportunity at the end of the webinar to ask Professor Yossi Sheffi questions.
Background on disruptions and opinion on future action
From a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal:
From a supply-chain perspective, the disruptions associated with past crises such as the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, that swept across Asia; the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster; or the 2011 Thailand floods are not a good yardstick for the current epidemic. Those events shook specific companies for a relatively short time, but the impact of the coronavirus could be much more sustained.
Moreover, the virus formally known as Covid-19 is affecting both supply and demand, so the potential threats are graver than those earlier disruptions. This is especially true because of China’s growth since the SARS crisis as a manufacturing powerhouse and as a major consumer market.