As the saying goes, never waste a good crisis. We have certainly seen our fair share of crises in the past 30 years. And now there is the COVID-19 pandemic to add to the list. For some sectors, it is difficult to see the COVID-19 crisis as anything other than a threat. Notable examples include the hospitality industry, aviation and the performing arts sector. For others, such as diagnostics companies, the crisis has turned out to be a gold mine. Some companies have also made some very bold moves. In this white paper, Vlerick strategy experts have joined forces to reflect on the implications of the pandemic for businesses, to share best practices on how to deal with the current situation in the short term, and to offer methods and advice on how to build a strategy for the new normal. The message is not to all reinvent yourselves, but rather to put the COVID-19 crisis in perspective and answer some of the most pressing questions facing businesses today. How can you survive this crisis, and how can you be ready for the next one? How can you be better prepared for the future, bearing in mind that that future is unknown? Our Vlerick experts also explore why some organisations cannot see beyond the threats, while others seize the opportunities, and what you can do to help your company succeed. The COVID-19 pandemic may well have been the trigger, but the analysis and advice presented in this white paper have relevance far beyond the current crisis, a crisis that serves to show exactly how turbulent today’s environment is.

With new, digital technologies entering the factories and the supply chain, the role of people in manufacturing and logistics is undeniably changing. Existing tasks are disappearing or changing, new tasks are emerging. Digital technologies can be used to automate certain tasks, yet their full power is in how they can augment and extend the human capabilities of employees. But what about the planning function? How is this function being impacted by the introduction of digital technologies – and, in particular, artificial intelligence – making the planning system more advanced? In collaboration with OMP, partner in our Research Centre for People in the Smart Digitised Supply Chain, Professor Ann Vereecke, and researchers Alejandra Cabos-Rodríguez and Nicholas Vijverman, conducted a series of interviews with decision-makers in multinational manufacturing companies. The insights from those interviews can be found in the report ‘Supply Chain Planning in the Digital Age’. The reports looks into the future of supply chain planning in order to answer two sets of questions: What does the planning system of the future look like for manufacturing companies? Knowing that planning algorithms are becoming more advanced, self-learning and prescriptive, will this have an impact on the different modules of the planning system and on how these modules interact with each other? And what impact will this have on the interaction between the ‘human’ and the ‘machine’ – that is, between the planner and the planning tool? Who is the planner of the future? What will the planner’s responsibility be if algorithms are doing the planning? What skills and competencies does the planner need? Somewhat controversially, one may even wonder whether we will still need a planner in the future.