What are the biggest challenges in supply chain strategy?

The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region presents unique challenges that require nuanced understanding of both global trends and local conditions. These challenges, whilst complex, also present significant opportunities for organisations willing to take a strategic approach to supply chain transformation. They can be categorised into three key areas: compliance, resilience and design.

Supply chain strategy in EMEA faces a fast-changing regulatory landscape. Governments update trade agreements and compliance requirements regularly, while businesses must keep up with fragmented documentation and disparate data systems.

Key challenges:

• Rapidly changing regulations and trade agreements require constant updates to shared information
• Commodity details are stored in separate places, with no unified source of truth
• Document versions are scattered across multiple platforms, making oversight difficult
• Company policies often don’t link directly to live operational data
• Regulations and standards are tracked manually, risking missed updates
• Legal obligations are complex, but real-time compliance tools are lacking

At GHD, our compliance approach focuses on establishing appropriate policy and regulatory environments for government clients whilst helping private clients adapt to changing regulatory landscapes.

We work with organisations to develop carbon monitoring systems, single trade window platforms and custom solutions that streamline compliance whilst maintaining operational efficiency. We also advise on trade gateways and infrastructure investments that balance regulatory requirements with operational needs.

To streamline customs declaration and compliance for our clients, we use Flowtrade, a digital governance platform developed by GHD and BridgingX. It connects existing systems, reduces administrative burden and provides an auditable trail of data, which is automatically assessed to government and other overseeing agency requirements.

Supply chain strategy must address resilience, especially in a region exposed to disruptions like pandemics, geopolitical tensions and climate change. Ageing infrastructure and skills shortages further limit capacity.

Key challenges:

• Disruptions from global events, blockages and climate impacts
• Limited capacity due to outdated infrastructure and equipment
• Fragmented supply chains with unknowns, leading to inefficiencies and inflated costs

Our resilience approach focuses on change, adaptation and efficiencies to reduce disruption risk. We help organisations understand trade flows, navigate geopolitical tensions and secure critical materials through strategic planning.

This includes defining reshoring, nearshoring or offshoring strategies that balance cost, risk and operational requirements. We develop national freight strategies, economic hubs and insurance frameworks that enhance flexibility in volatile market conditions.

Through our data-driven insights that cover shipping routes, vessel cascades, infrastructure capacity and future projects, we provide insurers the technical understanding to enable better overall risk assessment and mitigation.

Supply chain strategy in design must bridge the gap between government plans and industry needs. Political cycles mean strategies change, leaving infrastructure projects uncertain. Fragmented transport modes and poorly connected hubs slow down goods movement and raise costs.

Key challenges:

• Government strategy and infrastructure development are misaligned
• Supply chain designs are unable to adapt to changing operational needs
• Poorly connected transport modes create inefficiencies and hinder sustainability

Our design approach provides detailed focus on master planning, capacity analysis and strategic awareness. We model facilities and design infrastructure solutions that optimise performance across multiple transport modes.

This includes movement analysis and freight mapping to inform strategic decisions about transport optimisation across road, rail and sea. We help identify strategic port gateways for imports and exports, enhancing connectivity between regions and global markets.

The use of dynamic simulation models and basic operational level inputs allows for frequent updates, keeping master plans relevant as policies and market conditions evolve. By clustering activities and considering the wider network, we help clients unlock commercial benefits and sustainability gains.

We leverage decades of experience to deliver tangible solutions for both public and private sectors, focusing on resilience, compliance and efficient design. Our capabilities include developing freight strategies tied to sustainability ambition, modelling optimal trade gateways and analysing transport systems to minimise inefficiencies.

Our work with the UK Cabinet Office shows the value of strategic supply chain interventions. By supporting the UK's Port Infrastructure Fund (PIF), we not only delivered infrastructure improvements but also refined policies that saved the industry significant costs.

The £200 million PIF project was completed on time and within budget, achieving £300 million in savings for other government infrastructure projects. It also helped prevent £1 billion per year in industry costs, as noted in the 28 April 2022 UK Parliament Written Statement, highlighting the far-reaching value of strategic supply chain interventions.