40% of Manufacturers Faced Supply Chain Disruption in Past 12 Months
Looking at issues, challenges and opportunities that manufacturing companies face, a new report, State of the Global Supply Chain, found that 40% of manufacturing companies reported a supply chain disruption that impacted their business over the past 12 months.
Despite this, less than a quarter (24%) currently have a Chief Supply Chain Officer in place to help orchestrate the response, and an additional 41% said they have no plans to hire one.
“It’s clear in the report that manufacturers expect to face major supply chain challenges in 2016 stemming from external factors beyond their control,” said Greg Kefer, vice president at GT Nexus, whose company released the report on February 12.
“The data suggests their execution roadmap may be misguided, being focused more on cost cutting, for example, than more mission-critical things like having a senior supply chain leader in place. Seventy six percent of respondents said they currently operate without a Chief Supply Chain Officer.
With almost half of manufacturers reporting a disruption that impacted business in the past 12 months, this gap in strategic direction to address broader supply chain agility is a concern.” The study was conducted in partnership with global research firm, YouGov.
Findings about respondents’ technology priorities were also surprising, with 38% indicating they don’t believe their supply chain will be impacted by technology this year. This may suggest a lack of knowledge regarding the impact technology-based systems can have on mitigating supply chain disruption and the role of these systems in supply chain strategy and control.
While 64% of respondents acknowledged using inventory management, for example, the numbers were far smaller for those expecting an impact from more advanced technologies like analytics (13%), the Internet of Things (11%) and RFID ( 3%) that have been shown to give organizations an edge in their supply chain management operations.
