All stages in supply chain management is benefitted by the use of AI from demand forecasting to security and prevention of damage or loss of raw material and finished products. Even in good times, very difficult and sophisticated inventory-management decisions are needed to manage inventory stored in warehouses. Ordering and maintaining appropriate quantities is now harder than ever because traditional forecasting techniques have become ineffective: experienced buyers make decisions to purchase raw materials, but that experience may count for less in a radically changed country and world. Given these strong headwinds, most companies could shrink their product mix to allocate warehousing to the most essential items in their portfolio. Producers of nonessentials in particular could continue to minimize their inventories, which significantly increase their holding costs and take up valuable warehouse space. But for essential items, the ongoing uncertainty around supply means that it might make more sense for producers to keep inventories high than to risk stockouts. In any case, just-in-time approaches to scheduling may not work, at least in the near future. Not surprisingly, the pandemic has made many companies question if large regional warehouses are really the best way to keep supply chains agile; smaller warehouses at more locations could be a better response to uncertainty.¹ Lockdown restrictions have also forced companies to ask themselves whether distribution centers could maintain service levels more effectively than a warehouse system can. Such centers may certainly make it more fruitful to deploy the latest technology. In the future, India’s warehousing industry may enjoy higher demand as producers shift their focus away from China and toward other Asian countries, including India itself. But one thing is certain: warehouses must reduce the amount of human contact involved in handling materials. As a result, demand for innovative packaging and materials-handling processes is rising throughout the supply chain. Companies that lease space in warehouses, for example, are demanding more streamlined and automated processes. Those that have their own facilities must implement such processes as well.

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