Europe-wide study: Industry prepares for long-lasting multicrisis

European industry is bracing itself for a long-lasting multi-crisis: 90 percent of companies expect major instability beyond 2023. The industry's most important strategies for securing the future: comprehensive digitization and deeper cooperation with suppliers. This is shown by the current study "Europe's Industry in Transition". More than 440 top decision-makers from 19 European countries were surveyed on behalf of the product innovation platform Aras.

Fighting the multicrisis with digitized supply chains

"Against the backdrop of a disturbing mix of skyrocketing energy costs, geopolitical risks and increasing labor market risks, Europe's industry is currently primarily concerned with failsafe production. In response to unstable supply chains, 40 percent of companies have therefore already implemented closer cooperation with their suppliers, a further 39 percent are working on this and 17 percent are planning more intensive collaboration with suppliers," says Jens Rollenmüller, Managing Director of Aras Deutschland, the company that commissioned the study. What is striking in a European comparison is that in the United Kingdom, concerns about supply chains are particularly pronounced. In the wake of Brexit, every second company there has already implemented closer cooperation with suppliers.

Digitization of the supply chain is another important building block for building resilience. "Thirty-six percent of companies have already redesigned their supply chain with digitalization in mind, and another 42 percent are in the process of doing so," says industry expert Rollenmüller. Around one in three companies has also responded to unstable supply chains with changes in products, and just under one in four with a relocation of production sites.

The challenges have never been as complex as they are today

According to Aras CEO Rollenmüller, companies are under greater pressure than ever before. But at the same time, the survey results are encouraging: "For example, eight out of ten companies admit that the outlook for permanently unstable supply chains is a cause for concern. But thanks to the countermeasures that have already been implemented across Europe, and some of which are still planned, the industry can position itself more robustly and better face future crises."

This forward-looking focus is also necessary because the waters will remain rough for Europe's companies in the long term: Nine out of ten survey participants, for example, believe that the challenges facing their companies have never been as complex as they are today. And the look ahead indicates that no easing is expected, at least in the medium term: "88 percent of the study participants believe that the next few years will continue to be as uncertain. In the face of these challenges, companies must act, including by regularly reinventing themselves and exploiting the efficiency benefits of digitization for themselves. This is the only way they can defy the economic upheavals of the multi-crisis," says Rollenmüller.

Source: Aras