Building supply chain resilience to combat volatility

AS Covid-19 threw fragile global supply chains into disarray, many companies were stunned by their own vulnerability. The risk of depending on a supply base that is concentrated in one geographic region has been increasing over the past 30 years, but the pandemic quickly demonstrated how much chaos and pain one unexpected event could inflict.

It was a powerful wake-up call. The disruption triggered by Covid-19 has prompted leadership teams to confront a new era of supply chain volatility.

Bracing for an era of increased turbulence, leading multinationals are rethinking their supply chain strategies to lower the risk of disruption. In a recent survey of 200 global manufacturers by Bain & Company and the Digital Supply Chain Institute, executives ranked flexibility and resilience as their top supply chain goals. Only 36 per cent of senior executives ranked cost reduction as a top three goal, down from 63 per cent who saw it as a priority over the past three years.