“We’re getting to an Amazon-driven, consumer-driven world,” says Mahesh Rajasekharan, president and CEO of global ecosystem integration software solutions company Cleo. “Even though they’re B2B manufacturing buyers, they have a B2C mindset right now.”1 This comment was recently offered by Rajasekharan in a recent conversation with Cathy Ma, vice president of platform growth and engagement at ThomasNet.com, on the latest episode of the Thomas Industry Update Podcast.
The podcast discusses insights on the global supply chain in light of the pandemic and other recent influencing factors. During the podcast, Rajasekharan said that industrial business leaders should be asking themselves three key questions:
- What do you do as a supplier?
- What do you do as a manufacturer?
- How do you use data?
For manufacturers, he said that they need to prioritize having supply sources close so that they have “the ability to make sure that they can meet their customer SLAs.” Rajasekharan explained that if manufacturers with a local supply chain can better control lead times and allow them to “make up for the increased costs through better demand capture and essentially incremental operating margins on the business.”
Next, Rajasekharan emphasized that both suppliers and manufacturers should optimize data and information to improve agility and flexibility, which incrementally adjusts cost and improves the supply chain. “Bottom line, I think, is that it’s all about digital transformation,” Rajasekharan says. “Manufacturers are somewhat slower in becoming digital because they think it’s all about cost, cost, cost. But now, post-pandemic, there’s a huge opportunity to go from just-in-time to just-in-case. Now we’re all thinking, ‘Okay, I’m going to have an agile supply chain. I want to have multiple sources of supply. And I’m going to have real-time information.’2
Listen to the entire podcast and hear the rest of Rajasekharan’s predictions for the impact of reshoring on the global supply chain and learn from the podcast episode’s second guest, Niels van den Boogert, vice president and general manager of Conveying Solutions at Ammega. CLICK HERE for the full episode on YouTube.