Fixing Broken Supply Chains

True supply chain resilience requires more than knee-jerk reactions. It requires a paradigm shift.   

Manufacturers have learned a bitter-tasting lesson: The global supply chain is highly vulnerable to prolonged disruption.

History has proven that single incidents, or so-called black swan events, can usually be absorbed without a lasting backlash. A hurricane, for example, will force cargo ships to be rerouted, and within a few weeks, normalcy returns.

A prolonged onslaught of multiple disruptive events, however, is debilitating. The current pandemic-related lockdowns, changes in consumer behavior, spikes in fuel costs, and tensions among global trading partners have uncovered deep fissures in supply networks. As a result, rethinking supply chain strategies is now a must do.

Only a Holistic Strategy Can Stop the Rippling Effects

From empty grocery shelves and sparse car dealership lots to clogged ocean ports and shortages of truck drivers and cargo pilots, evidence of the broken supply chain is all around—and deeply felt. Now, eager to patch systems and prevent further damage, enterprises are turning to technology to help fortify their supplier networks, hoping simultaneously to be more resilient, and more agile. Unfortunately, a quick bandage of new reporting tools won’t fix the underlying, systemic issues that are at the heart of today’s supply chain crises.

An entire paradigm shift – including strategy, customer alignment, inventory, product lifecycle management, and supply chain planning – is required to build a new supply chain model for the future.

The need to improve supply chain resiliency is gaining in acceptance, yet nearly half of the manufacturers are still on the fence in deploying any type of solution. IDC’s FutureScape: Worldwide Supply Chain 2022 Predictions suggest that by the end of 2022, only about 50% of manufacturing supply chains will begin to see the benefits of greater supply chain resiliency.