Industry news

A gap in priorities between procurement and supply chain teams has resulted in higher costs, longer cycle times and less resilience, according to research.

A survey of procurement and supply chain executives found for buyers the top priority was “managing costs in face of inflation”, while for supply chain execs it was “ensuring delivery amidst supply shortages”.

This misalignment in priorities was a concern in organisations, as 58% of supply chain officers reported the gaps were resulting higher costs, 47% said they caused longer cycle times, and 42% reported negative impacts on resiliency. Additionally, around 45% said it resulted in an inability to source critical materials.

Read more on CIPS here.

Industry leaders say inflation is the biggest threat they face over the next two years, closely followed by the Ukraine conflict and geo-political tensions between China and the US.

The latest Trade in Transition global survey of 3,000 executives, commissioned by DP World (DPW) and conducted by Economist Impact, reports that 96% of companies are developing their supply chains to add resilience, following to the shockwaves from the Covid pandemic and geo-political issues.

DPW said: “The change has been swift. In the space of just a year, the number of companies shifting their manufacturing and suppliers – either to home markets or nearby – has doubled. This is driven mainly by efforts to reduce costs and the risk of disruption.”

Read more on The Load Star here.

Keelvar, the leading global provider of autonomous sourcing and sourcing optimization solutions, today released the results of its 2023 Voices of Sourcing report. Keelvar’ s research found that 91% of supply chains have been impacted by inflation, which has increased pressure on procurement teams to cut costs. Despite the urgency to control spending, only 12% of procurement and sourcing teams plan to cut budgets for technology and innovation, which shows the criticality of enabling technology in uncertain markets.

Read more on BusinessWire here.

A KPMG poll of 300+ investors shows more than half are looking to ramp up their acquisition activity.

Despite an environment of rising inflation and interest rates and with the possibility of a recession, 60 percent of healthcare and life sciences investors say they plan to increase their M&A activity in 2023.

The KMPG Healthcare and Life Sciences Investment Outlook sampled more than 300 executives on their perspective going into the new year and how that will affect their investment plans. For 2023, the theme seems to be strategic investments, as companies continue to combat continued supply chain issues, labor costs and inflation.

Read more on Healthcare Innovation here.

Cheltenham-based law firm Charles Russell Speechlys has been featured in The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases for 2023.

The list includes cases with the most significant sums in dispute, with proceedings set to be heard in court during 2023.

The disputes involve high-profile parties or issues, as well as insolvencies that have caused a tumultuous fallout.

In this case, the joint liquidators of the BHS Group are seeking to recover £163 million from the retailer’s former directors in one of 2023’s largest insolvency litigation set pieces.

Charles Russell Speechlys is acting for the fourth respondent, Non-Executive Chairman Keith Smith.

Read more on Business & Innovation Magazine here.

Over the past few years, the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) space has grown and matured significantly. Today, over 90% of S&P 500 companies publish ESG reports, reflecting the increased expectations from employees, consumers, investors, and regulators.  

Around the world, we're seeing ESG legislation turn to regulation, like Germany's Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, meaning supply chain operators must ready their reporting operations now to avoid scrambling to stay compliant later.  

The truth is, many organizations are still figuring out what their most material issues are, which goals they want and need to pursue, how they track against those goals, and how best to communicate progress to stakeholders.  

Here’s how they can get started.  

Read more on SupplyChainBrain here.

• Companies wanting to optimize their global value chains have always had to find a way of circumventing trade tensions and bottlenecks.

• There has been a recent shift towards reshoring operations to boost resilience while decreasing transport costs to meet demand for local products.

• Governments need to avoid protectionist policies and work together to increase economic cooperation and liberalize global trade.

Read more on World Economic Forum here.

Just one in five (23%) chief economists expect supply chain disruption to have a significant impact on businesses in 2023, according to a report. 

The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Chief Economists Outlook, produced for the WEF's annual meeting in Davos, found half (50%) of experts considered it either somewhat or extremely unlikely that there will be an adverse impact from supply chain factors. 

The report said this reflected “significant stabilisation after Covid-19 restrictions and integration of war-related disruptions in business planning”.

However, the report said the outlook for the year ahead was “gloomy”.

Read more on CIPS here.

Latest Study on Industrial Growth of Back Office Automation Market 2023-2029. A detailed study accumulated to offer Latest insights about acute features of the Back Office Automation market. The report contains different market predictions related to revenue size, production, CAGR, Consumption, Growth Opportunities, Market Trend and Technologies, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also offers a complete study of the future trends and developments of the market. It also examines the role of the leading market players involved in the industry including their corporate overview, financial summary and SWOT analysis.

Some of the Major top players describe in the research are Automation Anywhere Inc, Automai Corporation, UiPath, Softomotive Ltd, Integrify, Pegasystems Inc., Thoughtonomy(Blue Prism), HelpSystems, Twenty57, OpenConnect Systems Incorporated, GNU cflow, Altitude Business Systems Ltd, Codeless Platforms

Read more on Digital Journal here.

The supply chain crisis has been much in the news of late. It’s not difficult to understand why. The crisis has had a profound impact across industries and throughout the global economy. It has contributed to surging prices, layoffs, productivity declines and empty store shelves.

However, there is hope on the horizon and it is coming in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The technology is improving the supply chain in a myriad of ways, from optimizing inventory management to enhancing warehousing and storage processes to automating critical elements of the supply chain. If properly executed, supply chain AI has the ability to improve logistics drastically at a time when every minute counts. 

Read more on VentureBeat here.