Survey: More Than One-third of Manufacturers Continue to Experience Supply Chain Disruptions
For the second straight quarter, more than one-third of North American manufacturers polled in MFG.com’s latest MFGWatch survey say they’ve experienced a significant supply chain disruption in the past three months.
The survey — which drew responses from 334 manufacturers of parts and services, purchasing professionals and engineers –was conducted in early January 2010.
Specifically, 35 percent of purchasing professionals responding to the survey said they had experienced a significant supply chain disruption and had to seek alternative sources to recover. Likewise, 34 percent of supply-side manufacturers reported that they had received queries from buyers experiencing supply chain disruptions within the past quarter.
In addition, the new MFGWatch survey reveals that expectations for excess capacity, employment growth and supplier reductions expressed by poll respondents a few months ago have not fully materialized.
For instance, in the October 2009 MFGWatch survey, 62 percent responded that they expected to maintain the capacity of their plants in the coming quarter – but in this latest survey, only 34 percent said they actually had.
In October, 13 percent of manufacturers stated that they anticipated staff reductions. However, the new data shows that nearly triple that amount (38 percent) have made staff reductions.
And, as for projections regarding supplier networks, in the October 2009 MFGWatch survey, only 6 percent of sourcing and purchasing professionals said that they expected to reduce the number of their active suppliers by year’s end. Instead, 19 percent say they in fact reduced their supplier base during that time. Similarly, while 40 percent of the same group indicated in October that they expected to add suppliers, only 23 percent did so.
When asked about specific supply chain risks, buy-side OEMs cited material costs (47 percent) and supplier stability (46 percent) as the most important issues. The vast majority of supply-side manufacturers (81 percent) identified customer stability as the most important issue for the second straight quarter.
