The past five years provided an expensive lesson. The COVID pandemic, the Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal, Red Sea shipping disruptions \u2014 all reminded the world that the cheapest supply chain is not necessarily the smartest. Resilience moved up the priority list. According to the Amazon Business report for 2025, 32% of procurement decision-makers cite supply chain disruption as the leading risk to their operations. <\/p>\n
Nearshoring and Friendshoring <\/p>\n
One notable trend is bringing sourcing closer. Establishing regional hubs reduces geopolitical risk but may increase costs, and friendshoring \u2014 switching to suppliers in allied countries \u2014 seeks to balance between the two considerations. There is no free lunch here, but an informed choice. <\/p>\n
Here AI is definitely improving the picture. Unilever scans financial data, sustainability metrics, and customs data of suppliers and produces supplier risk scores, enabling quick replacement in a crisis. Akira’s AI agent named Piper analyzes supplier data to predict bankruptcy risk. Veridion updates supplier data weekly and enables building shortlists in hours rather than weeks. During 2025, American manufacturers used predictive risk tools to divert orders from at-risk suppliers in Southeast Asia before they failed. <\/p>\n
Maersk operates a digital twin of its supply chain to run ‘what if’ scenarios without committing real resources. Instead of reacting to disruption after it happens, you can see it approaching and prepare in advance. <\/p>\n
It should be noted that an increase in inventories comes at the expense of cash flow. It should also be noted that AI-based risk scores are worth exactly as much as the data fed into them \u2014 if the data is inaccurate, the result is inaccurate. Relying on friendshoring may create new concentration and dependence on another source. Furthermore, diversifying suppliers adds management complexity. To create resilience means investing resources and must be done with good judgment. <\/p>\n
For Israeli companies, geopolitical exposure is structural. The value lies in mapping the real risk in the supplier base: single points of failure, dependencies on second-tier sub-suppliers, and geographic concentration. In Mashik’s supply chain and procurement divisions, we are building a tiered sourcing strategy, drawing on risk management methodologies developed with the consulting firm Kearney, so that resilience becomes a competitive advantage rather than an expense. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran sanctions, Houthi attacks, COVID \u2014 the world has learned that the cheapest supply chain is not the smartest. Here’s how companies are building resilience and supplier diversification. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n