Fresh data has emerged to show that COVID-19 is still causing disruption to about 43% of entire global supply chains.
A new independently commissioned survey this summer by risk management platform Interos revealed results about the pandemic’s disruption to supply chains. 90% of survey respondents, including 450 U.S. senior decision makers who serve in risk and compliance, logistics, IT, procurement and operations at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, said they were concerned that future waves of infections will have similar consequences to the last wave. (97% agree that better visibility into their suppliers is imperative, but fewer than half (44%) currently have a streamlined solution in place to meet this need. 36% agreed they need to find suppliers in other geographic regions due to import/export restrictions – an indicator of a near-term onshoring increase.
According to the report, the Aerospace and Defense industries have been hardest hit so far, but heavy impact was felt across all industries showing that continuous supply chain risk monitoring is imperative.
Out of a list of 11 risk factors covered in the report, 57% of organizations ranked the ongoing pandemic as the biggest current risk to their supply chain, a greater percentage than any other risk listed. Questions further in the survey help quantify just how severe the disruption has been. Respondents estimate that on average about 43% of their entire supply chain suffered some kind of interruption, ranging from:
- Fluctuations in supplier prices (cited by 44% of respondents)
- Safety restrictions causing orders to be paused or slow to fill (44%)
- Need to find suppliers in other geographic regions due to import/export restrictions (36%)
- Bankruptcy of suppliers (25%)
Some industries experienced more upheaval than others. The survey found that 65% of supply chains in Aerospace and Defense, on average, were disrupted by the pandemic. The biggest issues in the industry are the collapse of suppliers (cited by 48% of industry respondents) and supplier bankruptcies (46%).
The Aerospace and Defense industries also come up short on planning for short-term disruptions (cited by 60% of industry respondents) and knowledge of interrelationships with global suppliers (60%).
The survey also asked respondents about other risks to their supply chains beyond the pandemic. The top five are cyber threats/data breaches (41%), issues related to doing business in restricted or sanctioned countries (34%), supplier liquidity (33%), and reliance on a single supplier or country (30%).
“Finding new suppliers or moving manufacturing back to the U.S. is easier said than done,” said Jennifer Bisceglie, CEO and Founder of Interos. “The first step to improving resiliency and better managing risks is having clear visibility across the end-to-end supply chain and understanding what alternatives exist for any threats identified.”
The survey report can be found here.
Lists of cyber security suppliers, and others, can be found here: GovShop Data: A Look at the Cyber Security Market
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