Half the revenues of American companies are coming from abroad. As well, their products are increasingly coming from abroad.
For example, the San Francisco/Oakland Bay bridge outsourced much of the work, including a mile-long cable that was manufactured in China. The overall savings were $400 million (Source: NPR.org).
Another example is food manufacturers, who are increasingly leveraging global products. This redundancy, in an otherwise efficient system, is having multiple suppliers which mitigates the risk of supply chain disruptions (i.e., weather disruptions to regional product availability). While it mitigates one risk, it also creates another…many countries do not provide product traceability, which is used to recall products and address health and quality issues.
As we quickly move towards a global supply chain, there needs to be an additional quality assurance check on products. A company cannot celebrate increased global revenue while sacrificing product quality.
Does your organization have a global supply chain?
