Localizing Your Supply Chain: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Crises can reveal weaknesses and, as the coronavirus spread around the globe, it made clear the lack of visibility many businesses had into offshore suppliers and manufacturers and demonstrated the fragility of their supply chains. It was a sobering wakeup call 30 years after many companies expanded their supply chains abroad to take advantage of much lower costs.

In a May survey by the Institute for Supply Management, 97% of respondents said the coronavirus impacted their supply chain and 36% dealt with disruptions. Yet, as of March, 44% of respondents had no plan to overcome these disruptions. In other words, these companies could not maintain production at normal levels if, for example, they relied on a single supplier in China’s Hubei province, where the virus first surfaced.