Name: Khushboo Singh
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 302-312
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18130601

ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has exposed the several weaknesses in the global supply chain systems especially those organizations that rely solely on Just-in-time (JIT) model. The primary focus of JIT is to reduce cost, minimize inventory and also depend upon operational efficiency which turns out to be the effective way in every changing business environment. But due to pandemic lockdowns, transport disruptions and shortages in semiconductor highlighted the limitations of JIT. To tackle these unexpected disruptions companies have started adopting Just-in-case (JIC) strategy in their operations in which the focus is mainly on to maintain the buffer stock and sourcing with multiple suppliers and to mitigate the risk as well. In this paper JIT and JIC is being presented using comparative analysis. The study is based on secondary data in which research papers, industry reports and corporate case studies especially of automotive and electronic sectors are analysed. Findings suggested that the companies have started adopting hybrid supply chain models wherein the cost efficiency of JIT and the resilience of JIC is balanced. Also, Industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT and
predictive analysis are making supply chain decision making more adaptive. Paper conlcudes that In the era of post COVID - the focus is not only supply chain strategies but also on the resilience, flexibility and long-term sustainability

Keyword: Just-in-time (JIT), Just-in-case (JIC), Supply chain resilience, hybrid supply chain model, Industry 4.0, risk management.