Join the discussion in Cape Town on 15 September 2026 or Johannesburg on 17 September 2026 to hear practical insights, exchange ideas with industry peers and explore the role of intelligent automation in navigating operational complexity.

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How South African Supply Chains Are Adapting to Disruption

Global trade disruption is placing renewed pressure on South African supply chains, adding to the challenge of moving goods reliably through domestic transport and logistics networks. South African businesses can feel the effects of disruption thousands of kilometres away, affecting inventory availability, transport costs and fulfilment planning.

This challenge is prompting businesses to reconsider how much resilience they have built into their supply chains and whether operating models designed primarily around efficiency provide enough flexibility when conditions change.

This is shifting the conversation around inventory, sourcing and logistics capacity.

Rethinking the pursuit of efficiency

For years, businesses focused on reducing inventory levels, removing excess capacity and building leaner operations. The approach delivered lower costs and improved asset utilisation, but it also reduced the buffers available when disruption occurred.

"Pursuing the leanest possible inventory in the name of efficiency is now less of a priority," says Mithun Perinchery, Head of Sales – Middle East, Turkey & Africa at Dematic.

As a result, businesses are looking for ways to build greater flexibility into their networks. The conversation is shifting from minimising inventory towards ensuring continuity of supply, particularly in sectors where product availability has a direct impact on revenue and customer service.

"Businesses are now more focused on having robust business continuity plans due to disruptions," Mithun says.

Rebuilding capacity through automation

Holding additional inventory, however, creates another challenge. Businesses need sufficient storage and fulfilment capacity to manage larger inventory buffers without allowing additional stock to undermine warehouse efficiency.

This is where automation can play a broader role in supply chain resilience. While warehouse automation has traditionally been justified through productivity, throughput and labour efficiency, it can also give businesses greater capacity to respond to volatility.

"Automation supports higher density storage and hence better returns on the same warehouse footprint," Mithun says. "It also prevents the need to have a large amount of manpower in short-term scenarios to cater for disruptions."

Higher-density automated storage can allow businesses to accommodate additional inventory within existing facilities, reducing the need to expand warehouse footprints simply to create a greater buffer against disruption. Automation can also provide more consistent throughput when inventory volumes or demand fluctuate unexpectedly.

This creates an opportunity for businesses to think about automation both in terms of how efficiently a warehouse performs under normal conditions and how effectively it can respond when those conditions change.

Preparing for an uncertain future

No business can predict where the next supply chain disruption will come from. What organisations can control is how much flexibility they build into their operations before it occurs.

"Organisations should factor strategic safety stock to be able to cater for disruptions," Mithun adds.

Businesses should start looking beyond the traditional trade-off between inventory and working capital. Strategic stock, alternative sourcing options, flexible logistics networks and sufficient warehouse capacity can all provide greater control when external conditions become less predictable.

The objective is not to abandon efficiency, but to build supply chains that can remain efficient while having enough flexibility to absorb disruption, protect product availability and maintain customer service when established plans no longer hold.