Pandemic Drives Supply Chains to More Agile Future

The supply chain has always operated behind the scenes as the secret agent that makes our way of life possible. Before COVID-19, consumers, policy makers and even corporate leaders were surprisingly oblivious to the global complexity of supply chains. Now 8 months later after the pandemic’s onset, transportation systems are still not back to normal.

Mary Long, director of the Supply Chain Forum at UT’s Global Supply Chain Institute (GSCI), says “Disruption on a pandemic scale has amplified the sense of urgency to build more integrated supply chains, since visibility is the new competitive advantage.”  The pandemic has accelerated innovation in the industry and Mary Holcomb, the Gerald T. Niedert Professor at Haslam and one of transportation’s leading experts, agrees there is a bright road ahead because of it.

The Global Supply Chain Institute recently published white paper, Future Trends Shaping Transportation, that explores recent innovations in the transportation industry, incorporating 30 interviews with executives across all transportation sectors, and identifies five key trendschanging transportation: technology, hyper-local supply chains, last-yard delivery, automation and agility. Read the full report to  gain insight on how technology will radically alter traditional transportation processes, how global supply chains are under scrutiny while hyper-local designs flourish and more.

You can also learn more and see these future trends shaping transportation in action through ProMat Show coming April 2021!

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