Survey Points to Supply Chains' Increasing Complexity

Supply chains are getting way more complicated and that could be affecting companies' bottom line, according to a survey by Infosys and Microsoft.

In the survey of business decision-makers at manufacturing companies in Germany, Japan and the United States, half reported supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, and 65 percent reported experiencing a supply chain problem that took hours or longer to fix. They cited lack of real-time data in these systems as another problem.

Said Tyler Bryson, general manager of Microsoft's U.S. Manufacturing and Resources Sector:

The economy may be down, but the number of products, suppliers and geographies that high-tech manufacturers have to manage has gone way up. This complexity has made it difficult for firms to discover disruptions and act quickly, and this is becoming an increasingly serious industry issue.