Three times more companies in Asia have outsourced parts of their supply chain than in Europe orthe USA, a new UPS study found. As many as 29 per cent of Asian executives said they had moved
“very extensively” or “completely” to outsourcing compared to only 11 per cent of US and Europeanexecutives. While 27 per cent of US and European business leaders said their embrace of supplychain outsourcing was “not extensive at all”, the corresponding number for Asian executives wasjust nine per cent.The survey among Asian business leaders was conducted by Harris Interactive® for UPS at therecent Longitudes ’05 conference in Shanghai. Other important topics for Asian executives wererevenue growth, expanding to new markets and improving product costs. “Asian business leadersclearly understand that effective supply chain management addresses a number of strategic issuesand can be a competitive differentiator,” observed UPS Chairman and CEO Mike Eskew. An overwhelmingmajority of all business leaders agreed that accurately forecasting demand was a major supply chainproblem at present.
