Global Supply Chain Survey 2013

Erratic macroeconomic cycles along with disruptions caused by natural disasters have made supply chain management both more difficult and important to business success.

To adapt to this dynamic environment, executives are actively managing their supply chains utilising strategic and operational levers at their disposal to transform vulnerabilities into competitive advantage.

In this global report we share the findings from our ninth and largest-ever global supply chain survey. We’ve drawn on the insights of more than 500 supply chain experts in Europe, North America and Asia, from companies of all sizes and across a wide range of industries.

We’ve also picked out two groups of companies and compared their performance.

The Leaders, as we’ve called them, have consistently outperformed their peers, while the Laggards have consistently underperformed - both financially and operationally.

The Leaders in our survey point to the future. They have supply chains that are efficient, fast and tailored - a model that lets companies serve their customers reliably in turbulent market conditions and that differentiates between the needs of different sets of customers.

We’ve identified six key findings that point the way towards how they do it.

Next Generation Supply Chain in China
In this year’s survey, over 50 respondents are from China. Drawn from our findings, strategic supply chains have emerged as a key source of competitive advantage for companies in China.

This year’s survey shows how Chinese companies are attaching equal importance to their supply chain as a competitive advantage as other global firms.

While they are outperforming many of their peers in financial terms, some areas of supply chain opportunities remain; particularly around supply chain priority areas of flexibility & managing customer requirements in the content of unpredictable demand and changing customer profiles.