The year 2020 was an era of uncertainty. The wrath of the pandemic was felt worldwide, hitting the manufacturing and procurement industry in the worst possible way. However, with the passing of days, we entered an era of Adaptability. Yes, we are speaking of the year that followed: 2021. Situations slowly started to recover. What looked absurd the past year, the present year made it looked possible. It is all about adaptability that the new normal taught us. But that said, what about the procurement and sourcing industries?

As per a leading procurement expert UK, it will take some more time to let the adjustment happen for the procurement and sourcing industry. The trends are changing but adjusting to the new normal will never happen over the night. It will take some time, and sooner than later, things will get normalized.

The Scenario Around

Look around, what can you see? You will notice the retail sector focusing more on eCommerce and less on physical locations. The tourism industry is operating with a low labor percentage. Then again, businesses are closing their doors for uncertainty. However, you will also notice a lot of businesses focusing on group purchasing organizations. This approach is taken to strengthen their procuring and sourcing lines.

Enhanced Sustainability

Speaking of the procurement and sourcing sector, sustainability will be enhanced. This is surely going to be a big positive. The latest and upcoming procurement trends emphasize strongly clearly defined business perspectives and requirements. Accordingly, finding a proper vendor becomes easier. Outsourcing is the new norm post the pandemic era. Ask your procurement agent UK to develop a list of all the vendors that seem to be reliable. However, it is only after interviewing each of them separately that you will be able to understand who will meet your requirements and who will not.

Selecting the vendor may not be a simple process. Once the interviews are done, the vendor selection team has to do a background check for the vendors. Accordingly, some vendors will be selected. If the team needs more info about these vendors, they will submit an RFI to the selected ones. Then, the team will wait for the response from the vendor. Once received, they will conduct an evaluation process and accordingly, will create a final shortlist of the vendors.

Ensuring Better Resilience Effort For The Procurement And Sourcing Sector

An eminent procurement expert UK will accept the fact that procurement and sourcing services are mostly interconnected and global these days. And because of this, many organizations and corporate houses face quite a few challenges. Some of these challenges are:

• The shift in global climate control
• The emergence of a multi-polar economic system
• Inclusion of additional geopolitical risks
• Risks that can emerge from mass healthcare events

The technology and automotive industries are mostly the most to face vulnerability. They usually have a very complicated supply-chain network to deal with. Hence, these companies seem to be more vulnerable than others in the foray.

The Concept Of Circular Supply Chain

The majority of organizations are focusing on the concept of a circular supply chain. The best thing about a circular supply chain is to reduce wastage, reduced environmental impact, and certainly, reduced material cost (long-term investment). Considering these benefits, many organizations are trying to incorporate a circular supply chain concept for better cost saving. However, a strict approach is necessary since the concept of a circular supply chain can only improve if waste disposal and recycling procedures are followed properly. But that said, regulations needed to be implemented in regards to appraisals and incentives for every sustainable effort being made.

Becoming Future-Ready

How to handle the new normal? Organizations need to adapt to the changes and transform themselves as per the new rules and regulations. To become successful in the post-pandemic phase, the sourcing and procurement department need to collaborate and operate with external as well as internal stakeholders. An eminent procurement expert UK emphasizes strongly the concept of adopting an operating model that seems to be agile. This will allow the procurement functional team to scale up and down the entire process based on challenges faced in the supply chain industries.

The Present Scenario – Is There Any Improvement Noticed?

Business and manufacturing units are trying their best to assess the risk factors associated with procurement and sourcing. Accordingly, they are implementing strategies to manage them a lot more carefully. Better transparency rates are being maintained by big corporate houses. A lot of companies are getting associated with suppliers for gaining info about the upstream value chains and next-tier suppliers. In this post-pandemic era, continuity planning for businesses has focused on a new concept. This has resulted in designing contingencies that are not limited to a single supplier but for the entire group to stay offline.