**1. Introduction**

The coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) and the 2021 delay of cargo ships along the California coastline illustrated recent challenges facing the supply industry and governments across the globe. Evidence shows that supply and demand challenges in the last years resulted from improper collaboration. The global supply industry saw nearly half a million containers of goods stuck off the coast of Southern California as state seaports operated below optimal capacity due to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The delay of containers disrupted services and delivery of goods in the United States and globally pre-2021 holiday season. Cargo ships could not return to their ports of origin to drop off or pick up more goods

while customers canceled orders impacting business bottom lines. Meanwhile, much of the global supply chain difficulties anticipating to anticipate COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and closures, which reduced the ability of firms to satisfy global market demands.

At the pick of COVID-19 and the Los Angeles seaport congestion, many firms satisfied consumer demands by utilizing a series of innovative digital technologies which include the Internet of Things, big data to machine learning (ML). COVID-19 pandemic and the California seaport crisis demonstrate the challenges facing firms that applied 20th century supply chain models to 21st-century problems. Today, evidence suggests that companies that employed a blend of new technologies during recent crises registered efficiency and productivity by addressing customer or industry needs in real-time (Imran Ali). The concoction of new technologies gave many firms opportunities to increase productivity and efficiency through big data, intelligent software, Internet of Things (IoT), and hardware. The 4IR is setting to disrupt orthodox supply chain knowledge by offering groundbreaking ways to meet and satisfy customer needs amid crises [1].

Meanwhile, many countries and firms still lack the basic infrastructure desirable to reap the benefits of the 4IR despite the usefulness and potential for the supply industry. The succeeding sections provide a background, methodology, results and discussion introducing the concept of the Supply Web and its tenets.
