MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation

Grant Thornton survey finds U.S. companies will bring production, customer service and IT infrastructure back to the United States.

Chinese authorities in Hong Kong this week discovered a narrow concrete tunnel built by smugglers intending to shuttle consumer goods from Hong Kong across the border to the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

To understand whether there is a shift in the manufacturing sector, the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation launched a U.S. Re-shoring survey, in conjunction with Supply Chain Digest, to understand what U.S. manufacturers are really thinking about in terms of re-shoring, what factors are driving their decision process and to determine, if in fact, a geography shift is occurring.

A new MIT study on supply-chain risk shows no correlation between the total amount a manufacturer spends with a supplier and the profit loss it would incur if that supply were suddenly interrupted. This counterintuitive finding defies a basic business tenet that equates the greatest supply-chain risk with suppliers of highest annual expenditure.

Re-shoring activities are underway, that much is for sure. But is this part of a larger trend that brings the fabulous news that the U.S. economy is anxiously awaiting? Or is re-shoring just a fad?

A research study by the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation and PricewaterhouseCoopers titled “Supply chain and risk management” identifies and explores the four levels of supply chain maturity.

Research study conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests performance indicators dropped by 3 percent or more because of supply chain disruptions.

The MIT Forum for Supply Innovation has released a report in collaboration with PwC, based on the results of its 2013 Global Supply Chain and Risk Management Survey.