The COVID-19 pandemic impact on the global manufacturing companies: Procurement challenges and resilience strategies
Halale, Pinaki (2023)
2023
Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
This publication is copyrighted. Only for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-10-25
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202310048653
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202310048653
Tiivistelmä
In today's procurement landscape, especially in manufacturing, there is a strong trend towards global sourcing. This means getting raw materials from around the world, which has many advantages, mainly cost-effectiveness. However, this global approach can also make procurement more vulnerable and threaten the availability of crucial materials, parts, and services. The COVID-19 pandemic is a clear example of a global event that had a significant impact on public health, the worldwide economy, and international markets. To combat the pandemic's spread, many countries enforced strict lockdowns, which further disrupted the exchange of goods and services in global market. This led to extensive challenges for manufacturing companies worldwide in managing their local and global procurement activities.
This thesis seeks to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global manufacturing companies, focusing on challenges and the strategies employed to enhance resilience in procurement. In order to accomplish this goal, the thesis has formulated two pivotal research questions that will be addressed through a qualitative literature review and an in-depth investigation comprising semi-structured interviews. The literature review contributes to improved comprehension of procurement challenges and resilience strategies prior to the COVID-19 era as well as during COVID-19 from the available literature while the interviews provide practical insights in the same domain and predominantly into post-COVID-19 landscape. Additionally, the literature review helps establish a framework, which is subsequently supports to analyse the outcomes of the interview study and draw comparisons pre and post COVID-19.
The significant findings of this thesis encompass the identification of challenges and resilience strategies. Most issues persisted but intensified due to COVID-19. The remote work challenges and temporary layoffs arose specifically due to pandemic disruptions for companies internally while acute supply shortages and logistics issues externally. The comparison between the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods enriches the study by highlighting a shift in challenges, from internal to external. It also emphasizes the in-creased strategic focus and the significance of being competent and prepared in man-aging resilience post COVID-19.
This thesis seeks to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global manufacturing companies, focusing on challenges and the strategies employed to enhance resilience in procurement. In order to accomplish this goal, the thesis has formulated two pivotal research questions that will be addressed through a qualitative literature review and an in-depth investigation comprising semi-structured interviews. The literature review contributes to improved comprehension of procurement challenges and resilience strategies prior to the COVID-19 era as well as during COVID-19 from the available literature while the interviews provide practical insights in the same domain and predominantly into post-COVID-19 landscape. Additionally, the literature review helps establish a framework, which is subsequently supports to analyse the outcomes of the interview study and draw comparisons pre and post COVID-19.
The significant findings of this thesis encompass the identification of challenges and resilience strategies. Most issues persisted but intensified due to COVID-19. The remote work challenges and temporary layoffs arose specifically due to pandemic disruptions for companies internally while acute supply shortages and logistics issues externally. The comparison between the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods enriches the study by highlighting a shift in challenges, from internal to external. It also emphasizes the in-creased strategic focus and the significance of being competent and prepared in man-aging resilience post COVID-19.