Global Supply Chains in the Wake of Covid-19

As countries, economies, and businesses adjust to life in the COVID-19 era, many governments have started to ask questions about the wisdom and longer term implications of allowing key components of socially or economically critical products like pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and defense products to be sourced beyond domestic borders. One key area of concern – and an area of weakness that the pandemic has revealed – is that many supply chains in crucial industries rely on a limited number of suppliers and/or on suppliers in a limited geographic region.

These developments suggest that businesses should consider the resilience of their supply chains and take steps to diversify their suppliers geographically. And, for essential products, businesses and governments should consider the extent to which it makes sense to develop a reshored domestic supplier

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But how easy is it to reshore, and how should companies go about doing this? To find guidance, we talked with Rosemary Coates, the Executive Director of the California-based Reshoring Institute

Rosemary agrees that pharmaceutical sourcing will likely start moving back to domestic suppliers, where possible. However, she cautions that moving operations away from China – for example – is not as easy as companies might like. In China, Rosemary points out, most employees have employment contracts, with the typical duration being 1-2 years. Thus, companies seeking to leave China cannot simply terminate workers; rather, these employment contracts in most instances must be fully paid.

Another complication is that, typically, manufacturers in China are not permitted to simply move their tooling and equipment out of China. According to Rosemary, “Chinese manufacturers consider machinery, tools and molds that a customer may have provided for production as part of their infrastructure, no matter who you think owns it. It will not matter to the Chinese government whether a non-Chinese company purports to have contractual ownership rights to the equipment. The Chinese government may not allow the equipment to be exported when you close the factory.”

A third major issue with moving away from China, according to Rosemary, is that by operating in China, “You have taught your Chinese suppliers how to make your products, and they are not likely to stop just because you are no longer doing business there.” As most international companies are aware, China takes a constrictive view of the intellectual property rights of foreign manufacturers, so once a company moves its supplier production out of China, it will need to be prepared to compete against this product (which is why Rosemary encourages US manufacturers not to manufacture their latest product editions in China).

Issues of leaving China aside – which are likely intractable – successfully reshoring requires robust strategic planning. In order for a company using US manufacturing to compete, its domestic labor rates must either be comparable to non-US labor rates, or enough labor must be extracted from production to be cost-competitive, according to Rosemary. This, obviously, means automation. Thus, companies must re-engineer their operations to determine how to produce more efficiently. The result is likely to include advanced automation, the use of robotics, 3D printing, and IoT.

Of course, companies that want to leave China or diversify in other low-cost markets (not the US) face different challenges, according to Rosemary, essentially figuring out how to vet alternative suppliers in unknown and untested jurisdictions. China’s rise as a manufacturing giant means that they are good at it, and their workers are very efficient and productive. For manufacturing in other countries, it will likely take time to build up the same level of expertise, so companies should be prepared to be as involved as possible, and to be patient.

However, for companies making the move now, there is obviously very little ability to travel and to vet directly alternative foreign suppliers. Rosemary counsels, nevertheless, that companies must conduct due diligence of potential alternative suppliers in a thorough way. Now that trade shows have been eliminated due to COVID-19 (which was a traditional method of being introduced to suppliers), Rosemary recommends retaining experienced counsel in the jurisdiction that a company is considering to make introductions, but more importantly to investigate and validate business licenses, experience, and longevity of potential suppliers. Companies should avoid sourcing agents and trade representatives unless they are well-known.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sarah Rathke and Rosemary Coates
Ms. Coates is the Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute and the President of Blue Silk Consulting, a Global Supply Chain consulting firm. She is a best-selling author of: 42 Rules for Sourcing and Manufacturing in China and Legal Blacksmith - How to Avoid and Defend Supply Chain Disputes Ms. Coates lives in Silicon Valley and has worked with over 80 clients worldwide. She is also an Expert Witness for legal cases involving global supply chain matters. She is passionate about Reshoring.

Copyright Blue Silk Consulting

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer.For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.