What’s the riskiest country to source from?

By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 6/25/2008 9:58:00 AM

According to a new report says the U.S. is the riskiest sourcing region. In an AMR Research survey, the U.S. was the top geography cited for supply chain risk at 35%, with China at 28%, and the Middle East and Africa at 12%. But despite ranking the U.S. as the riskiest region, more survey respondents are considering the U.S. as a sourcing region as expanding global sourcing has stretched many supply chains to their limits.

Survey respondents indicated that despite rising transportation costs, an aging logistics infrastructure, and a softening economy, many companies still are sourcing and manufacturing in the U.S. Keeping manufacturing close to home allows companies better visibility into their supply chains and increased oversight into day-to-day operations. 34% of companies are planning to near-shore their sourcing and manufacturing due to increasing cost-competitiveness, while 15% indicated lessened supply chain risk due to proximity to market as their primary reason to near-shore.

“Globalization is coming home partly because so much risk is associated with spreading the supply network around the world," explained Noha Tohamy, research director at AMR Research. The survey found that to further mitigate risk, companies have begun building better IT-based supply chain visibility (42%), employing multi-sourcing strategies (27%) and building performance-based collaborative relationships with suppliers (44%).