Supply Chain Briefing

January 31, 2020

According to the Epoch Times and International Business Attorney, John Tulac, China’s new cybersecurity law poses a big risk for anyone doing business in China. In essence, if you send data to or from China, your data can be audited at any time. It certainly is concerning from many standpoints such as intellectual property, trade secrets, and more. Listen to my short video on this new law and impacts to consider.

John and I talk about this law as well as many other topics related to doing business in China, alternatives to China and the new USMCA trade deal. Listen to our new interview in our Future-Proofing Manufacturing & Supply Chain series. Undoubtedly, you’ll pick up a few worries along with ideas/ potential solutions. Let us know what you plan to do. 

What Should We Consider and/or What Impacts Could Arise?
Many of our clients do NOT import from China, and so you might be thinking, why does this apply to me? If companies start leaving China in a mass exodus, you will certainly be in competition for new manufacturing options such as Vietnam, skilled labor in the U.S. and Mexico, technical skills to automate, use 3D technology, etc. And this is before thinking about indirect impacts. If the supply chain moves away from China, where will it move? There could be dramatic impacts on ocean lanes, political unrest throughout the world, raw material supply and supply and demand. We have never met a client unconcerned about these topics. After all, profitable growth is the name of the game!

At a minimum, no matter whether your supply chain relates to China, we recommend you re-think your manufacturing operations and extended supply chain. Are you dependent on any core suppliers? Are you spread too thin among suppliers? How are you selecting suppliers? And that is just the first topic in a line of many when re-evaluating your end-to-end supply chain. How about the broader topics of whether your manufacturing and supply chain is agile? Fast? 

Start by re-evaluating your manufacturing and supply chain road map and think through related impacts. These topics certainly relate to our new LMA-i, LMA-Intelligence series including the Amazon Effect, the Resilient Supply Chain and Future-Proofing and contact us if you’d like an assessment path-forward plan to accelerate your bottom line and customer performance.