Impact of COVID-19 on Supply Chain Management: A Case Study of Tesco

This report analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on supply chain management of Tesco, a global organization dealing in local and international goods and services. It discusses the challenges faced by Tesco due to the pandemic and how the company tackled the negative effects on its supply chain. The report also covers the implementation of lean production and digital supply chain strategies to improve business performance.

Global operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
STEP 1.............................................................................................................................................2
impact of SCM upon Pandemic...................................................................................................2
How organization tackle negative effect upon supply chain.......................................................2
STEP 2.............................................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................3
Situation analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Problem solving...........................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Global operations is an organization that provide its good and service to the customer in
all the areas. The current study is based upon the Tesco which is one of the top firm in UK who
deal in local and national, international. Further, the report will determine the impact of
coronavirus including the pros and cons. Also, it further provides how organization tackle the
negative effect on its supply chain.
MAIN BODY
STEP 1
impact of SCM upon Pandemic
Covid-19 posed significantly challenges for the supply chain at global level because a
multiple lock down satiation slow down the flow of raw material and finished goods. It is so
because due to uncertain economic environment, companies slow their technology investment
that affect the supply and demand of the companies. Also, Tesco faces issue with regard to the
supply chain management because farm production faces bottlenecks for some input whereas
there is a labour shortage and shutdowns (Francis, 2020). In addition to this, it has been
identified that some modes of transport have also badly affected the entire system of the
company. It is so because company deal at global level and that is why, it transfer the products at
one country to another so, due to not having access of mode of transport, company delay the
product services which causes a negative impact over the performance. This in turn shows that
there is a negative impact identified over the supply chain management at the time of pandemic
and this in turn causes direct impact over the business performance in term of sales. Hence, it can
be stated that there is a need to create a better outcome and for that Tesco should implement
effective strategies to overcome the same.
How organization tackle negative effect upon supply chain
Through the above, it has been identified that supply chain management have a negative
impact due to pandemic and this in turn cause adverse impact over the business performance.
Tesco also faces issue with regard to the poor transportation and labour shortage ( Sarkis, 2020).

That is why, to tackle such negative impact over the business performance, Tesco start focusing
upon digital supply chain in which responded by more than doubling its capacity for online
orders in a week Like, to support the same, it open an urban fulfilment centre with a small
automated warehouse in each store. This in turn help to improve the online sales which in turn
increases 77% of its sales from last year, Therefore, this opportunity and strategy has positively
affected the business performance and increases the digital sales capability.
Apart from this, it has been identified that with the help of new technologies that provide
comprehensive supply chain visibility in this real data time that assist to make the decision
effectually (How Disruption Accelerated Digital Supply Chain Transformation, 2021). Along
with this, AI and IoT are consider some of the advance technologies that help to create a better
outcome and as a result, Tesco prioritize their digital supply chain investment in an order to
create a better outcome for the welfare of a company. This in turn help to minimize the negative
issue faced by the quoted firm at the time of pandemic because raising online service was assist
to create a better productivity and increases the collaboration within an employees.
STEP 2
Rationale
The chosen topic for this step is Lean supply chain which is all about supply the goods and
products to the end customers so that there will be minimal waste. The rationale for choosing this
topic over other is such that it helps to improve the quality of a products so that it does not
hamper the need of customers (Ivanov, 2021). Also, at the time of Covid, supply chain has
affected the overall performance of the company.
Situation analysis
Tesco has strong supply chain because company is operating at global level and that is
why, it is essential for the business to improve the performance by implementing effective
quality management approaches. As a result, it adopts collaborative approach of supply chain
management whose aim is to gain competitive advantage within a market.
At the time of pandemic, company faces different issues with regard to supply chain
which include decrease the sales as well as growth of the company which affect the business

performance
(de Sousa Jabbour and et.al., 2020). Also, the customer preference keeps changing towards the
fresh and healthy products that lead to cause adverse impact over the business performance.
Thus, to improve the challenges faced by Tesco at the time of pandemic, company comply with
Lean production which in turn help to reduce the wastage because pandemic make people realize
about non-wastage of food products.
At the time of current situation i.e. Covio-19, company faces numerous issue which
includes decline in the sales because a strict government lockdown lead to shut down the
business and transfer of food product to other area. At that time, company’s sales have directly
affected as well as there was a huge jobs loss of different employees in other market, whereas
Tesco keep adjusting to labour shortage and supply chain problem (Mollenkopf, Ozanne and
Stolze, 2020). Apart from this, company also faces issue with regard to supply chain crisis but it
started focusing upon its online process that helps to create a better outcome in order to generate
a better outcome. Further, it has been analysed that during the time of pandemic, company keep
providing flexibility to the employees that helps to generate a better outcome and make them
able to improve the sales as well as profit.
At the time of pandemic, company analysed that there is a need to make steps in order to
improve the performance and supply chain because if prior steps had taken then it will be
beneficial for the company to improve the business performance (McMaster and et.al., 2020).
Also, might be more worse condition will be identified in the future and to improve the same,
consult with experts so that effective outcome can be generated.
Problem solving
By analyzing the problem of Tesco related to quality of a product, it has been identified
that Tesco uses approaches related to implementing lean production that assist to reduce the
wastage at the time of pandemic. Therefore, it has also supported by the six sigma theory whose
main focus is to improve the quality of product so that they can improve the business
performance and quality of product that is offering by the company to customers. Also, in the
coming years, it has been identified that there are different issues which will be arise while
implementing such solution that include not having skilled workforce due to which company is

not able to implement the new approach effectually (Ketchen Jr and Craighead, 2020). Also,
company due to lack of supply chain, company start focusing upon online dealing to their
customers and this might help to generate a better outcome. These approaches are effective
because the sales of the company suddenly rose that is a clear indication of using effective
approach as compared to other.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report, it has been concluded that global supply chain has a direct
impact over the business performance and that is why, there is a need to implement the ways
through which company can improve the business performance. In the same way, Tesco also
faces many issues related to supply chain at the time of pandemic but by implementing different
ways, it tackles the changes and raise the performance of the company as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L. and et.al., 2020. Sustainability of supply chains in the wake of the
coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) pandemic: lessons and trends. Modern Supply
Chain Research and Applications.
Francis, J.R., 2020. COVID-19: implications for supply chain management. Frontiers of health
services management. 37(1). pp.33-38.
Ivanov, D., 2021. Lean resilience: AURA (Active Usage of Resilience Assets) framework for
post-COVID-19 supply chain management. The International Journal of Logistics
Management.
Ketchen Jr, D.J. and Craighead, C.W., 2020. Research at the intersection of entrepreneurship,
supply chain management, and strategic management: Opportunities highlighted by
COVID-19. Journal of Management. 46(8). pp.1330-1341.
McMaster, M. and et.al., 2020. Risk management: Rethinking fashion supply chain management
for multinational corporations in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Risk and
Financial Management. 13(8). p.173.
Mollenkopf, D.A., Ozanne, L.K. and Stolze, H.J., 2020. A transformative supply chain response
to COVID-19. Journal of Service Management.
Sarkis, J., 2020. Supply chain sustainability: learning from the COVID-19
pandemic. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Online
How Disruption Accelerated Digital Supply Chain Transformation. 2021. [Online]. Available
through: <https://hbr.org/sponsored/2021/08/how-disruption-accelerated-digital-supply-
chain-transformation>.