Resilinc shares new data revealing the top drivers of supply chain disruptions for 2023. The data compiled by Resilinc’s EventWatchAI reveals that overall disruptions are slowing compared to recent years, with a 5% year-over-year increase.
Top five disruptions for 2023 include:
- Factory Fires
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Labor Disruptions
- Business Sale
- Factory Disruptions
Factory fires maintained their position as the number one disruption for the fifth consecutive year, with 2,848 disruption alerts issued. However, this number is down 21% from the record high in 2022.
Mergers and acquisitions, along with business sales, also made their way into the top five supply chain disruptions for 2023. While the number of alerts issued for mergers and acquisitions declined by 14% compared to 2022, alerts for business sales grew by just over 7%.
Key Takeaways:
- Labor disruptions emerged as a new and noteworthy addition to Resilinc's top five list for 2023. With an 89% year-over-year increase, labor issues played a major role in impacting most industries in the U.S. and globally. From weeks-long UAW strikes affecting 53,700 workers to major layoffs at tech giants Google, PayPal, Meta and Amazon, labor disruptions such as strikes, shortages, stoppages and layoffs caused significant disruptions. Rounding out the top five is factory disruptions, which saw a 16% YoY increase.
- While the number of disruptions overall is stabilizing and even notably decreasing in some historically high-risk areas, other emerging risk areas experienced substantial year-over-year increases. Notably, alerts for bankruptcies saw a significant 190% year-over-year surge, marking the largest growth increase of all risk events tracked by Resilinc. Rising interest rates, stubborn inflation and accumulated business debt during historically low-interest rate periods were attributed to the high number of business bankruptcies.
- Other noteworthy trends highlighted in the data include an increase in alerts related to extreme weather (forest fires up 26% and tornadoes up 108%); financial risk (profit warnings jumped 103% while corporate restructuring increased 79%); ESG and compliance risk (FDA/EMA/OSHA action alerts increased 73% and fine-related alerts went up 66%); and cyber attacks (up 34%).
- The five most disrupted industries included Life Sciences, Healthcare, General Manufacturing, High Tech, and Automotive, marking the third year in a row that these particular industries have been the most impacted.
