When the crisis is over, the real work for supply chain managers will begin

Source: Bob Trebilcock @ Supply Chain Review (April 15, 2020)

According to Jacob Shapiro, a geopolitical analyst, 90 percent of the businesses with a direct impact to their supply chains as a result of COVID-19 are based in the U.S. At the same time, China enjoys a dominant position, and in some sectors a monopoly, on supply in those global supply chains.

“While the first rule of supply chain resilience is to avoid single sourcing,” says Shapiro, who advises business clients on geopolitical and political risk, “U.S. and European companies have long been attracted by the cheap skilled labor China has to offer.” He adds that “regardless of the ultimate impact or duration of the pandemic, the rapid suppression of global economic activity has shown that overreliance on China as a primary supplier has become an intolerable single point of failure.”