Geopolitics shows biggest increase as supply chain disruptor but fails to make Top 10
13 Feb 2023
Supply chain disruptions caused by geopolitical instability showed a massive increase during 2022, with a 378% increase over the previous year, says risk monitoring leader Resilinc in its latest annual EventWatch report.
Yet, despite recording the largest percentage rise of any disruption factor, neither geopolitics nor the other big risers – bankruptcies (up 270%) and airport delays (189%) made the top 10 list of disruption causes.
Heading the list were factory fires, where incidents rose 85% year on year to 3,609 alerts. Shortages of skilled warehouse labour and failures in regulatory and process execution were cited as key causes.
In descending order, the leading causes were listed as mergers and acquisitions, business sales, leadership transitions and factory disruption.
Next was labour disruptions, which rose worldwide by 92%. Examples cited included China’s Foxconn iPhone factory protests and the UK’s Felixstowe port strike. Legal action, cyber attacks, recalls and port disruption made up the final top 10 entrants.
Of the more than 15,000 notifications analysed, just over half (51%) took place in North America. Hardest hit industrial sectors included more traditional areas such as general manufacturing and automotive but also life sciences, healthcare and IT.
