Gartner: What are the drivers of change in supply chain networks?

Organizations are changing their supply chain networks.

A new survey by Gartner Inc. of chief supply chain officers provides insight into their strategic decisions.

According to the survey, 73% of companies surveyed have added or removed manufacturing sites from their supply chain networks. The data shows that risk management considerations, such as improving resilience and improving flexibility and agility, have displaced cost efficiency as the main driver of network changes.

The main factors that have led to changes in the supply chain network over the last two years (multiple answers possible) include:

• Increasing resilience/redundancy as part of the risk management strategy: 46%.
• Improvement in mobility or flexibility: 43%.
• Reduction in operating costs and cost efficiency: 41%.
• Achievement of sustainability goals or targets: 38%.
• Simplifying/rationalizing the supply chain network: 36%.
• Prepare the organization for future growth: 35%.
• Meet legal requirements: 32%.
• External geopolitical pressure: 26%.

The survey also found that the most commonly cited changes to supply chain networks were adding new delivery locations with existing delivery partners (50%) and pursuing new delivery locations with new delivery partners (48%). According to Gartner, adding delivery locations is a strategy that companies often use for multiple purposes, including diversification, achieving cost efficiencies, mitigating geopolitical pressures and improving efficiency.