The age of multi-localism

What will it take for retailers, multi-national manufacturers and consumer goods manufacturers to survive in a new, anti-global, tariff-threatened, protectionist, populist, nationalistic environment?

A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council may have an answer to that question with the release of “Competing in an Age of Multi-Localism,” a new study that notes the tectonic shifts occurring in consumption patterns globally. The study also analyzes their multiple causes, makes the case for why companies can’t afford to ignore the phenomenon and subsequently goes into what companies need to do to radically reinvent supply chain operations.

This process includes marketing, product development and production around a decentralized model. The study takes a deep dive into the supply chain implications, the changes necessary, and how Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies will affect companies’ supply chain, production costs and locations.

The authors cover:

• redesigning of fundamentals such as sourcing and product supply locations, manufacturing footprint and where to conduct R&D to shorten supply chains;
• the technologies that make up the 4IR, particularly robotics and additive manufacturing techniques, to enable the cost-effective production of mass and customized goods;
• implications of highly automated environments and a strategic assessment of migrating to this way of manufacturing;
• addressing conflicting interests of automation with governments’ industrial policies to promote localization, job creation often being a priority;
• and which of the companies’ inputs or final products are at greatest risk of trade protectionism.

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