Supply chain resilience vs. COVID-19 disruptions during the second wave

The majority of companies around the world suffered severe supply chain disruptions since the first wave of the pandemic. This paper, in contrast, focuses on how prepared were companies when the second wave struck. We focused our study on the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on Supply Chain Management during this second wave in Saudi Arabia, though not clearly defined by a rise in number of cases, we will rely on the dates the lockdown took place during. The purpose of our study is to understand how resilient different companies supply chains were and if that resilience impacted their recovery level. We conducted our study on Saudi companies from different industries and multiple sizes. We excluded international companies operating globally, in order to focus the findings and ensure our analysis covers the local scene. We collected the data using survey questionnaires answered by employees involved in the Supply Chain, Procurement, and Project Management or C-suite level personnel. We conducted our data analysis using SPSS to run a correlation analysis between our findings on the Supply Chain Resilience and our sample Recovery Level. We used a Resilience Testing Model which consists of linking correlations derived from analysing data collected. We have found through our descriptive analysis that, even though companies vary in their scores of understanding, importance, availability of alternatives and preparedness, they all exhibited a disruption from COVID-19. The lessons learned from the correlation analysis is that companies are expected to begin searching for a more diversified supplier base in the near term, thus looking to build a versatile, but cost-effective, supply chain. Shifting supply chains nearby, decreasing the suppliers base, increasing the digitalization of supply chains are essential tactics companies have to start committing to.