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Supply Chain 2022: A Very Disrupted YearSupply chain disruptions in 2022 were up 32 percent year-over-year (YoY), according to risk analysis firm Resilinc, and 91 percent of those disruptions were human-caused.

The top 10 disruptions for 2022 include: 

  • Factory fire 
  • Mergers & acquisition 
  • Business sale 
  • Leadership transition 
  • Factory disruption 
  • Labor disruption 
  • Legal action 
  • Cyber attack 
  • Recall 
  • Port disruption 

With 3,609 alerts from Resilinc’s EventWatchAI – an 85 percent uptick from the prior year — 2022 trumped previous years with the most factory fires ever recorded in a single year. Much of this trend being driven by gaps in regulatory and process execution as well as a shortage of skilled labor in warehouses.

The five most disrupted industries included life sciences, healthcare, general manufacturing, high tech, and automotive, marking the second year in a row these particular industries have been the most impacted.

2022 also saw a large increase in labor disruptions around the globe marking a 92 percent YoY increase. Clear examples of this are the protests at the Foxconn iPhone factory in China and the port truck driver strike here in the United States. 

Leadership transitions, like the appointment of new chief executive officers at the shipping company Maersk or the multinational healthcare company, Roche, also saw a big jump this year with a 77 percent increase over 2021. Top-level management changes can often lead to modifications in corporate strategy. 

Despite not making the top 10 list, Resilinc’s data shows that geopolitical disruptions saw a 378 percent increase from 2021 predominantly stemming from the Russia/Ukraine war. Beyond that, airport disruptions jumped 189 percent and economic instability caused bankruptcies to climb over 270 percent last year. 

Of all the 15,354 EventWatchAI notifications sent, more than half (56 percent) were impactful enough to trigger the creation of a WarRoom—virtual platforms in the Resilinc dashboard where customers and their suppliers communicate and collaborate to assess and resolve disruptions.  

Geographically, North America experienced the most disruptions accounting for just over half (51 percent) of the total alerts issued, followed by Europe and then Asia.  

Resilinc’s data is gathered by its 24/7 global event monitoring Artificial Intelligence, EventWatch AI, which collects information and monitors news on 400 different types of disruptions across 104 million sources including traditional news sources, social media platforms, wire services, videos, and government reports.

About Resilinc  

Since its launch in 2010 Resilinc has defined the supply chain mapping, monitoring, and resiliency space and is widely considered the gold standard for supply chain resiliency, worldwide. Learn more at www.resilinc.com