Expertise & Clear Advice

As there now is real light at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic tunnel, for many companies the key question is: what strategic supply chain and manufacturing footprint initiatives to take in order to prepare ourselves for the future and how to implement them?

For most companies clearly the time has come to take a longer-term perspective again and prepare the company for potential new disruptions in the future. BCI Global has defined 5 strategic initiatives that companies should adopt when preparing the manufacturing footprint for the future.

E-commerce has grown 2-5 times faster than in the pre-pandemic period in literally every country and double digit annual E-commerce growth is reported by almost all businesses. It will not be a surprise that this will continue the next coming years. According to CBRE research the E-commerce global sales by 2025 will amount up to a staggering number of $3.9 Trillion USD, as opposed to $2.4 Trillion USD today.

The US economy is ‘hot’. Fueled by the Covid-19 recovery with a forecasted economic growth of more than 5 per cent this year and the substantial investment packages of President Biden domestic and foreign companies are investing in new manufacturing plants. But labor market challenges are around the corner.

Currently, there is a serious storm or even a hurricane ongoing in the ocean freight industry. Rates are at an all-time high (BCI’s monitor shows an average of factor 4, with outliers of factor 10!), capacity is limited which is strengthened by the false container positioning and port congestion due to Covid-measures and high demand is counted in weeks instead of days. The reliability of ocean freight is all time low which pushes the need for end to end visibility even further.

An integrated approach focusing on Visibility, Affordability, Resilience and Sustainability helps to cope with the current transport challenges. BCI Global has developed this so-called VARS framework to support companies improving their transport operations.