What’s Ahead for Supply Chains in 2023?

Stephanie Buck
Stephanie Buck
Content Marketing & Storytelling Manager, Coupa

Stephanie is passionate about storytelling and helping leaders, businesses, and organizations transform the way they connect with their customers, prospects, and others. At Coupa, she leads storytelling and content production efforts for supply chain. She brings over a decade of experience supporting marketing and communications with impact-oriented enterprises and mission-driven organizations. She earned her Master's degree from the London School of Economics and her Bachelor's degree from Texas Christian University. She grew up in the Chicago area, but currently calls Washington, D.C. home.

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What’s Ahead for Supply Chains in 2023?

In 2022, 83% of leaders in a recent survey reported at least one major disruption in their supply chain, and 50% reported at least three major disruptions. This new survey of 1,000 supply chain decision-makers in the U.S. and Europe, commissioned by Coupa and conducted by Morning Consult, shows that as a result of the tumult of the last few years supply chain leaders have shifted their priorities for 2023.

Uncovering the Critical Supply Chain Trends of 2022 and 2023

Download the State of Supply Chains Report Now

What were the biggest lessons learned in 2022?

Our survey results indicate that leaders recognize they need to take action to make their supply chains resilient, or they risk revenue loss and wasteful spend. 

Globally, COVID-19, rising transportation, production, and materials costs, and geopolitical uncertainty were listed as the top reasons for disruption. Leaders cited labor shortages, raw material shortages, and unreliable shipment lead times as major contributors to these factors.

What are leaders prioritizing in 2023?

Concerns and priorities varied by region. For example, U.S. supply chain leaders ranked increased costs as their top 2023 concern, while British and European leaders expressed greater concern about geopolitical uncertainties.

But let’s dive into the regional breakdown a little more.

Top 2023 supply chain priorities by country

France
  • 80% of French leaders plan to invest in making their supply chains more agile and resilient. 
  • Their top priority? Addressing shortages of critical parts or other goods.
  • Actions they're prioritizing to smooth out their supply chains include optimizing inventory, improving distribution and logistics, and building healthy supplier relationships. 
Germany 
  • 74% of German leaders plan to make the shift from a global supply chain model to one that is more regionally based.
  • Like French leaders, their top priority involves addressing shortages. 
  • The number one action they’re prioritizing to achieve these goals is building healthy supplier relationships. 
United Kingdom
  • 78% of U.K. leaders plan to invest to make supply chains more agile and resilient.
  • Their top priority mirrored that of French and German leaders, but the U.K. stood out from the others in the following way: the number two priority was to secure sufficient, reliable transportation and shipping capacity. 
  • Related to the above, U.K. leaders identified making improvements to distribution and logistics functions as the top action they plan to take to support their 2023 supply chain goals. 
United States 
  • 89% of U.S. leaders plan to focus on making their supply chains more agile and resilient. 
  • Implementing new supply chain design, contingency planning, and/or technology solutions is their top priority this year. 
  • The top action they’re prioritizing to reach their 2023 goals is to build healthy supplier relationships. 

Interestingly, all four countries also listed hiring and retaining talent in their top three priorities for 2023. 

Stay tuned for some forthcoming country-specific data sheets that provide more data breakdowns.

How digital solutions are helping supply chain leaders achieve their goals

Leaders see digital solutions as a key to ensuring product availability, improving customer experience, and reducing overall risk. And they’re willing to back up those ideals with money: most plan to invest up to US $5 million in digital solutions to improve their supply chains.

This is a great sign, but companies have a lot of work cut out for them — nearly 80% of those surveyed do not currently have all their supply chain functions digitized.

How this report can help you

The last three years have taught the world valuable lessons about the pivotal role supply chains play. Without resilient supply chains, the world essentially stops running. This report aims to provide supply chain leaders with insights into the challenges their peers have faced, what they’re prioritizing in 2023, and actions they plan to take to achieve their goals.

This report can do more than help you gain a quantitative read on what your peers are thinking and doing to ease supply chain distress. It also suggests areas to focus on to optimize costs and business spend across your organization, manage risk, build resilience, and improve your supply chain agility, including:

  • Optimizing business spend with real-time visibility.
  • Creating contingency plans and assessing risk more frequently.
  • Identifying and vetting suppliers faster and improving supplier relationships. 

The benefits of taking action now

Six weeks into 2023, it’s not too late to step up your supply chain game. Download the 2023 State of Supply Chains report now. 

Is your supply chain ready for 2023?

Get the Report Now