Almost two-thirds (65%) of the surveyed managers engaged in logistics affairs said that their strategy is affected by the crisis, and just over one-third (34%) said that ‘sustainability' is a topic on their agenda.

The study reveals that the economic downturn is the biggest influencing factor on the supply chain agenda (65%), followed by meeting changing customer requirements (46%), sustainability (37%) and globalisation (29%).

Other business drivers for 2009 included the introduction of new product-market combinations (26%), emerging markets (25%), supply chain security (21%), regulatory compliance (17%) and new competition (12%).

Respondents were asked to rate the top ten supply chain projects for 2009. Topping the list are projects that lead to reduction of inventory and logistics costs:

• Inventory optimisation (48%)
• Supply chain strategy (45%)
• Improving long-term forecasting / planning (44%)
• Network re-design (41%)
• Improving supply chain visibility (39%)
• Sales & operations planning (36%)
• Contract renewal strategic logistics partner/s (35%)
• Warehouse centralisation / decentralisation (31%)
• Sustainability program (30%)
• Outsourcing of logistics services (29%)

Respondents were also asked to list the projects that were on the supply chain agenda prior to the financial crisis, and the projects that are still on the agenda now, in order to determine the shift caused by the downturn.

Projects aimed at reducing inventory and renewing contracts with current or new logistics service providers show a clear increase. Projects, such as network redesign and supply chain strategy have been dropped from the agenda:

• Inventory optimisation (+9%)
• Supply chain strategy (-14%)
• Improving long-term forecasting / planning (-4%)
• Network re-design (-4%)
• Improving supply chain visibility (+6%)
• Sales & operation planning (+5%)
• Contract renewal strategic logistics partner/s (+11%)
• Warehouse centralisation / decentralisation (+1%)
• Sustainability program (-4%)
• Outsourcing of logistics services (-3%)

The postponement of long-term investments becomes very clear when looking at the projects that were planned for 2009 but have now been suspended. All top five projects on this list concern logistics IT projects. Large and complex projects (TMS/WMS) have dropped by more than 20%:

• Technology-based warehouse innovation, e.g. RFID / voice picking (-30%)
• TMS - selection / implementation (-26%)
• Design & implementation of logistics software solutions (-26%)
• WMS - selection / implementation (-23%)
• Advanced planning systems implementation (-16%)

Of the 300 survey respondents, 62% are based in Europe, 16% in the US and Canada, 13% in Asia and 5% in Latin America.

The global economic situation calls for proper action at short notice in order to adjust the cost level to the declining demand. The risk in this is that other business drivers, which may dominate the agenda in the longer-term, may not be taken into account.