UNDERSTANDING RESILIENCE CAPABILITIES OF JAPANESE PROCESSED FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In this VUCA environment, a stable food supply, essential for human survival, is becoming increasingly important. The COVID-19 pandemic created severe shortages of consumer goods and processed foods in several parts of the world, and Japan was no exception. This study outlines the impact of the pandemic on Japan’s processed food supply chain (SC) and identifies the resilience capabilities of the SC using secondary and primary data collected through interviews with 11 companies in the chain. It was found that production cycles were stressed, the limited resources were engaged in production of Olympic related orders and coordinating production with subcontractors was extremely difficult due to negligible resource leveraging opportunities.
One of the most important findings of this study is that SC resilience capabilities vary according to the stage of the disruption. In the case of Japan’s processed food chain, capabilities of agility and centralization were found to be effective in the stage of severe disruption.