Manufacturers Rethink Supply Chains as Risks Rise

Many companies are planning to move their supply chains closer to home—a reaction to rising geopolitical tensions, the likely decoupling of US and China trade, and changing customer preferences. At the same time, increased automation has lowered production costs, reducing the labor cost benefit of assembling goods in foreign markets. That means a growing number of companies can now contemplate relocating production nearer to or on their own shores without increasing costs.  Forty-five percent of senior executives said that they would move much more of their supply chain near shore over the next three years, according to a recent survey of 200 global manufacturers by Bain & Company and the Digital Supply Chain Institute.