Just in Case not Global Supply Chains
New Make UK research in partnership with Infor on global supply chains finds that ‘just in time’ manufacturing is being replaced by ‘just in case’ as volatility becomes the norm and companies increase suppliers close to home.
The biggest disruptors in the last two years were:
- the pandemic with 93% of companies saying it had caused some form of disruption (for 47% the impact was catastrophic or major)
- followed by exiting the EU for 87% (for 32% it was catastrophic or major)
- over half of companies also said the Suez Canal incident had caused disruption, even though it was blocked for only a week, highlighting the dependence on Far East supply chains.
But what about reshoring?
Well, over two-fifths of companies (42%) have increased their UK supply base (for almost a fifth it is a significant re-routing) with over a quarter increasing supply from Western Europe. This trend is set to accelerate with over two-fifths of companies (43%) saying they expect to increase UK suppliers in the next two years.