How technology can help redraw the supply chain map

How technology can help redraw the supply chain map

Supply chains face a rethink. Geopolitical fissures have disabled the just-in-time model, unwinding decades of globalisation. The danger of overreliance on one large manufacturing base, China, has been exposed by the pandemic. Early on in the Covid outbreak, Fortune observed that 94 per cent of Fortune 1000 companies had experienced supply chain disruption.

Added to this, many companies in the UK have been hamstrung by Brexit. Multinationals had the resources to prepare for Britain’s departure from the EU and, in critical sectors such as pharmaceuticals, many received government help to increase inventories and set up alternative sourcing. Small and medium businesses without financial clout, however, have been severely affected.

Other countries did not have the UK’s additional impediment but they still experienced shipment delays. The August 2022 Global Supply Chain Pressure Index, collated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, showed that while delivery times had reduced in the previous four months, pressure was still high. This left the chain vulnerable to disruption or even to fluctuations in seasonal demand.

Against these stresses, consumers continue to expect greater choice delivered quickly, cheaply and, increasingly, more sustainably. Even as disruptions continued, global trade for 2021 reached a record high in value, according to