Manufacturers Must Remain Agile to Achieve Growth in Rapidly Shifting Global Landscape: Aprio Study

Nearly one-quarter of companies import more than half of their components, and almost one-third spend $1 million or more on custom duties and tariffs, according to Aprio’s second annual U.S. National Manufacturing & Distribution Study.

"Manufacturers and distributors are grappling with unprecedented challenges, yet the latest iteration of Aprio's U.S. National Manufacturing & Distribution Study reveals significant opportunities to automate processes and adopt supply chain best practices," says Adam Beckerman, manufacturing and distribution leader at Aprio. "These improvements can drive more efficient reporting and production, ultimately enabling growth and positioning businesses to win in a complex global trade environment."

Key takeaways:

·       This year's study finds that many industrial companies continue to face challenges and have substantial opportunities for improvement across critical functions.

• Supply chain: Most companies continue to experience supplier problems, especially product delays and product defects. Yet more than half of companies don't assess many supplier criteria. The top criteria assessed are quality/reliability (just 48% of companies), total cost (46%), and productivity (42%). Moreover, supply chain best practices are ignored, with only 36% of companies sharing forecasts with primary suppliers.
• Information technology: Nearly half (48%) of companies experienced at least one breach of networks and data in the past year, and 17% report five or more breaches. Yet, many best practices to improve cybersecurity are ignored by high percentages of companies. Even the most-used approaches are deployed at only half of companies, like cybersecurity training (52% of companies), cybersecurity policy (50%), and cybersecurity audits (46%).
• Workforce management: Many companies continue to face annual labor turnover rates of more than 10% for frontline employees (42% of companies), managers and supervisors (30%), and senior executives/leadership (28%).
• Operations: Nearly two-thirds (66%) of companies empower half or fewer of frontline employees to solve problems, and 67% of companies report that half or fewer of their frontline employees are multi-skilled.