This week's ‘Hot Topics’ Procurement Briefing given by Graham Crawshaw (CASME’s Services Director) to members based in Latin America, highlighted the actions necessary to manage the impact of COVID-19 on the supply chain.

Given that Brazil has experienced some of the most significant impacts of COVID-19 in the world, those attending the presentation were able to share their local perspectives and experience.

Key takeaways: 

- Building and maintaining relationships with suppliers is a key priority for Procurement. To balance this, suppliers are also expected to assist and provide peripheral support to their clients – it must be a two-way approach. Once the crisis is over it will be remembered which suppliers offered help and which didn’t.

- Consolidation of the supply base may be something that is developed to help manage a future crisis. During the epidemic, it has been necessary for Procurement to increase the number of suppliers and SKUs, due to severe disruption in the market.

- Procurement's ability to identify the origin of goods and services is also a high priority for risk management.

The recording from this meeting will subsequently be made available to all CASME subscribers via the member-only Resource Centre. Procurement teams can review these collective insights and develop best practice in a frequently changing world.