The supply chain world is currently going through one change after another.

We’re seeing businesses implement AI that can simulate risk in order to help companies transform their sourcing processes, or switch to renewable sourcing to help the planet.

The International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA) hosted a panel with a range of supply chain and sustainability leaders where they discussed some of the issues companies around the world are facing.

Sustainability and cost
The Impact of Global Supply Chain Disruptions on Sustainability panel discussed how companies can use the global disruption to their advantage, by adapting quickly to new processes and new technology as a means to stay ahead of competitors.

In the panel, Mihir Patel, Senior Vice President at AlixPartners explained: “Now, we are seeing a major turbulence overall across the industry. It seems a lot more global than before.”

Mihir Patel, Senior Vice President, AlixPartners
“This is definitely an opportunity for industry and the companies to build a resilient supply chain that can withstand things like that.”

Already, companies around the world are having to re-evaluate their sustainability pledges as they’re finding them too costly.

Gartner released a study which detailed the prediction of 75% of organisations dropping their voluntary sustainable packaging targets by 2028.

bp is moving away from renewable energy in order to expand its oil and gas portfolio, claiming cost-reduction as a main reason behind the switch.

Joydeb Mandal, Director at Inspirage adds: “It is very critical for any Chief Sustainability Officer or Chief Supply Chain Officer to put together strategic shocks, dynamic global shift and sustainability goals.

“Putting all these three things together is a really huge challenge.”

Joydeb Mandal, Director at Inspirage
A technological shift
As supply chain and procurement leaders are having to adapt to the ever-growing geopolitical shifts, it is no longer advised to simply react, instead, companies are finding it more vital to predict these events.

Many businesses around the world are moving towards a single data platform. Rather than taking months to sort out manual processing, companies are adopting AI platforms which can do this for them.

Joydeb continues: “Getting everyone into the same platform having the same data across the ecosystem [is very important].

“Having so many different data sitting in different silos [means you] you cannot integrate.”

The panelists also discuss the introduction of automated machines to help with manual processing, particularly in warehouses.

Raj Mahalingam, who specialises in Supply Chain Operations at Amazon, adds: “There are a lot of injury rates related to supply chain for engaging human labor not just the accidents but a lot of ergonomics related injuries that happens to the laborers and it actually causes problem to their lifespan.

Raj Mahalingam, Supply Chain Operations specialist at Amazon
“So lot of these processes within the warehouses can be automated and using IoT sensor devices to track the inventory management using intelligent systems.”

The tariff tension
One of the biggest topics in business at the moment is the tariff trade war, with US President Donald Trump imposing high tariffs on countries and industries around the world.

As a result, many US-based companies are further developing their US presence, creating more domestic supply chains.

Non-US-based companies are introducing facilities into the country in order to create a manufacturing presence, rather than just a retailer one.

Mihir says:”One of the recent thing that we have been seeing because of the global tariff situation, companies want to make everything localised.

“So, companies have to think through what their short-term goal is, what their long-term goal is, how they want to address some of these tariff challenges. Do they want to bring things localised or do they want to pass on some of these pricing pressure or costing pressure to their customers?”

Apple is one of the companies which has invested into the US due to tariff pressure, with the current figure at US$600bn.

It is clear that businesses are having to short-term react to the changing geopolitical climates, but by acting fast and implementing some of the solutions discussed in the panel, they can make long-term changes to stay afloat during turbulent times.