Global supply chains have faced a steady parade of stressors over the past few years, from the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions to extreme weather events and technological disruptions. These challenges have exposed critical vulnerabilities in the way goods and services are produced and transported around the world. For many businesses, it has become clear that supply chains can no longer operate on autopilot, relying solely on efficiency and cost-cutting measures. Instead, resilience, adaptability, and strategic foresight have become essential.

Today's business leaders are rethinking how they source, manufacture, and deliver products, recognizing that disruptions are not rare anomalies but ongoing risks. While the early 2020s highlighted the fragility of global trade networks, they also sparked a wave of innovation and opportunity. Companies across Canada and beyond are now using this period of upheaval to build more robust, localized, and sustainable supply chains—turning short-term crises into long-term competitive advantages.

Create contingency plans based on supply chain mapping

To better understand supply chain risks in light of pandemics and trade wars, business owners should first develop a rudimentary map of their product flow. A couple of questions to ask include: How have these suppliers fared during crises all the way up the line? Is there a geographic concentration or a hub of transportation concentration?

Business owners should identify critical key inputs and build contingency plans for how to get them should primary sources not be available, ensuring they mitigate risks regarding geography and transport methods.

In an ideal scenario, contingency plans would be in place well before a crisis occurs. However, recent data underscores the ongoing vulnerability of supply chains. According to Deloitte’s 2022 Manufacturing Supply Chain Study, 80% of surveyed organizations experienced significant supply chain disruptions in the past 12–18 months, and 90% acknowledged an increase in the frequency of such disruptions over the past decade. These findings highlight the critical need for proactive risk management and the development of resilient supply chain strategies.

Focusing on a second source where a product could be manufactured or supplied is another strategy. Alberta companies can react to disruptions by considering local sources; for instance, if a specific component is needed, businesses could work with a local 3D-printing company, or perhaps a shop down the road that can produce smaller batches as a contingency.

Supply chain transportation uncertainties

Logistics and supply chains rely on transportation channels to effectively move goods from one region to another, but as we've seen in recent years, these channels are highly vulnerable to disruption. According to the Institute for Supply Management’s March 2025 Manufacturing Report, the Supplier Deliveries Index registered 53.5 percent, indicating slower delivery performance compared to the previous month—a moderate slowdown compared with the 65-78 numbers during peak COVID disruptions but still noteworthy.

This slowdown reflects ongoing challenges in transportation logistics, including delays in trucking and rail services, as well as port congestion, and underscore the need for businesses to develop contingency plans to mitigate transportation-related disruptions. In a case of grounding of air cargo operations, as was seen during COVID, forward-thinking businesses considered trucking options, even at the risk of upsetting customers and partners. What was integral to this was clearly communicating to customers any delays brought about as a result of opting for new transportation strategies.

In the supply chain world, everyone is a customer

To help keep business continuity on track, it’s key to remain open with supply-chain partners on some of the challenges bruising product shipments. Everybody is a customer of someone. You are a customer of your supplier and they want you to be successful. If business owners are honest about the struggles they are facing with cash flow, or the need to get a certain amount of products out the door by a certain time, no one will be left feeling blind-sided by mini crises within the massive public health crisis.

Have transparent conversations with suppliers about your business situation; perhaps negotiate terms to pay in 30 days instead of sooner. Most suppliers will likely continue to supply product if new orders are kept current while allowing a deferral of past invoices.

Supply chain documentation should go digital

This year’s supply chain shakeup will also wake up business managers who have never sought to fully digitize all the documents and files related to receiving products and parts. For legacy industries that are accustomed to paper docs and faxes to software and online integration, in a perfect world, digitization would have ramped up way before COVID-19 struck. Then again, better late than never.

There are programs available for companies to eliminate paper and use an end-to-end procurement system that looks after purchase orders, invoice matching, expenditure authorization levels, and accounts payable. This reduces sludge in the system, as the system can amass all performance data of suppliers regarding shipments, timing, and quality for use in forecasting and risk management. Owners can also assign authority levels for how much different levels can order, approve, and pay.

Fostering a culture of innovation within a business goes beyond modernizing supply chain logistics, but also signals to employees there is significant consideration paid to applying technology to all units within the company.

Make that financial and resource investment

Organizing a response to supply chain challenges requires investments, which can be difficult for bootstrapped small and medium businesses, but it shouldn’t be ignored. Every business should have some sort of enterprise resource planning (ERP) or whiteboard posting order information and material details, which can help business owners make sound decisions during lean times.

Often, bringing in a consultant to assess risks and alternative options if problems crop up could be beneficial to larger firms with the resources to hire out this position.

That consultant can also help business owners understand other issues that may relate to global turbulence such as trade war and tariff issues or political risks by sourcing materials from certain regions as well as pandemics and natural disasters resulting from global climate change.

Whether with an outside hire or not, forward-thinking businesses could take the advice of what PwC suggests for companies facing supply chain challenges due to factors beyond companies’ control: “Conduct scenario planning exercises to understand the operational implications—financial and non-financial.”

Coming out of the other side of this supply chain reordering could benefit companies that were due to fine-tune this area of their business. Owners can conduct an assessment of their critical key inputs and mobilize to ensure stronger resiliency in their supply chain going forward. It is critical to address supply chain issues when the memories of the impacts are still fresh.