A survey conducted by law firm Foley & Lardner LLP indicates, manufacturing executives expect the COVID-19 pandemic to change their supply chains completely. Titled, ‘Global Supply Chain Disruption and Future Strategies’, the survey draws on responses from nearly 150 manufacturing executives – majority of who are members of their company’s C-suite, and work in a wide array of industries.

Foley delves deeper into the issues highlighted in the survey in its newly published Accelerating Trends: Assessing the Supply Chain in a Post-Pandemic World report, which provides business insights and guidance for companies reviewing supply chain processes to mitigate risk, evaluating a shift in supply chains away from China, and using new technologies to improve efficiency.

The Foley reports also analyze the extent to which COVID-19 has accelerated the movement of production and sourcing away from China. Around 59 per cent reported either having already withdrawn operations, or are in the process of doing so, or are considering it. The Accelerating Trends report analyzes the key costs, benefits, and risks to consider in several regions that present alternatives to China. The survey findings state, the result of this analysis has increasingly led companies to move supply chains closer to home to either the US, Mexico or Canada.

The report identifies eight specific areas that are expected to see greater investments and provides guidance on how they stack up against each other in terms of resilience, cost, and maturity. In addition, survey respondents identified the top technologies they are considering as new tools or applications that improve supply chain visibility and tracking and operational analytics to better track business metrics and indicators.