If you’ve been waiting on a package for weeks, your order might be here, stuck at sea in a shipping container. The COVID pandemic has snarled global supply chains, causing massive backlogs and shortages … … that have some companies stockpiling goods in trailers and chartering private container ships. But these are temporary fixes. For longer-term solutions, some companies are looking to make sweeping changes to their supply chains, including shifting manufacturing closer to home; … but pulling off these strategies can require retooling a complex web of global production, potentially adding new risks and costs.

First, here’s how a globally distributed supply chain typically works. In this case, for Timberland’s Pit Boss boots, a shoe the company sells to consumers in the US and beyond. Sourcemap, a website that publishes data about supply chains, says the materials, including the leather and metal details, are sourced from locations around the world, including the US, the UK, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. All of these materials are shipped to a factory in Bangladesh, where the boots are assembled. The boots are transported to a distribution centre in Virginia, where they’re then shipped off to retail locations and customers around the world.

Modern supply chains are complex and they’re far-flung.

Jen Smith has been covering the forces behind the supply chain issues for the Wall Street Journal. She says that over the past few decades, supply chains have become increasingly global. With every step along the way, there is the potential for disruption, whether it’s in manufacturing or in transport, or if you’re having trouble distributing it once it gets here.

Lately, disruptions have caused extensive delays, which has driven up the cost of many goods. So, some companies are looking at different location strategies to protect their supply chain, and their bottom line.

One idea being discussed in corporate boardrooms is called regionalization.This involves setting up factories in multiple parts of the world so that operations in each region are able to supply products to the closest markets. The idea is to minimize risk.

Supply chain problems happen all the time. The most common pre-pandemic was something to do with a natural disaster, or a hurricane, or a typhoon, … or something affects the ability to get stuff on the shelves of your local grocery stores, so things are emptied out and then that has a ripple effect on the cost of transporting goods.

So, if a company is regionalized, a closed factory in one place only impacts sales in nearby locations. Companies are also looking at shortening their supply chains through a similar strategy called nearshoring. The concept is pretty simple. It refers to the practice of pulling production that had been moved far away, back to a country closer to where the products are distributed and sold. And this strategy is becoming more popular.

After facing shortages, the Italian clothing company, Benetton, decided to increase manufacturing in Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt, closer to where the products are sold in Europe. It’s a big move. The company plans to cut its Asia production by half over the next year or so. It’s a reversal of the decades-long shift by many apparel companies to Asian factories that offered low-cost supplies.

Some companies are also using a strategy called reshoring. It’s similar to nearshoring, but in this case, a company that previously moved manufacturing overseas, moves it back to the country where it was originally located.

With reshoring, a business may choose to move some of its manufacturing that it had been doing elsewhere back to the US, if it had experienced trouble getting the products here, … … whether there wasn’t enough production capacity abroad, or whether there were transportation bottlenecks that were preventing products from getting here when they were needed.

While moving production could solve some supply chain issues, these solutions aren’t a fix-all and they still carry risks. Mainly, they’re expensive to pull off. According to a 2020 report, the total combined cost for US and European companies to move manufacturing out of China would come to some $1 trillion over the next five years. And for many smaller companies, the costs are too high to bear.

Some companies may not have enough money to set up manufacturing domestically. And even if they did, it might not make sense because their product might end up costing twice as much as it does. So, they are gonna have to weigh the cost of delays of a product that’s made elsewhere getting here – what does that mean for their bottom line? Versus would they have as many buyers for that product if they were making it domestically, and it costs twice as much.

Overhauling entire supply chains can also take years. Still, some companies think these strategies could pay dividends for the future and help their businesses survive.
(End)

• A shipping container (noun): a large, metal container used for transporting goods across different modes of transport.
• To snarl (verb): to stop movement by becoming stuck or blocked.
• A supply chain (noun): a system for getting a product from where it is made to the customer.
• A backlog (noun): a large number of things waiting to be done.
• A shortage (noun): a situation where there is not enough of something.
• To stockpile something (verb): to store a large supply of something for future use.
• To charter (verb): to rent a vehicle for a special use.
• A fix (noun): a solution to a problem.
• Sweeping (adjective): affecting many things or people, large.
• To shift (verb): to move or change.
• To pull off something (phrasal verb): to succeed in doing something difficult.
• To retool something (verb): to change something in order to improve it or make more suitable.
• A web (noun): a connected system of different parts or processes.
• Beyond (adverb): further away.
• To source something (verb): to get something from a particular place.
• To assemble something (verb): to make something by joining separate parts.
• Far-flung (adjective): a great distance away or spread over a large area.
• Increasingly (adverb): more and more.
• Along the way (idiom): during the time that something is happening or that you are doing something.
• Disruption (noun): the action of preventing something from continuing as normal.
• To drive up something (phrasal verb): to force a price, value, etc. to increase.
• A bottom line (noun): the final line of accounts of a company or organisation, stating the total profit or loss.
• A boardroom (noun): a room where people who control a company meet.
• To set up something (phrasal verb): to formally establish something new.
• A typhoon (noun): a violent wind found in the West Pacific Ocean.
• A ripple effect (noun): a situation in which one event produces effects which spread and produce further effects.
• To shorten (verb): to become shorter or make something shorter.
• A practice (noun): something that is regularly done, often as a habit or tradition.
• A reversal (noun): the act of changing or making something change to its opposite.
• Apparel (noun): clothing.
• Elsewhere (adverb): in another place, somewhere else.
• Capacity (noun): the total amount that can be produced.
• A bottleneck (noun): a problem that delays a process or stops it from continuing.
• A fix-all (noun): something that solves every problem.
• To bear (verb): to accept or tolerate, especially something unpleasant.
• Domestically (adverb): inside a particular country, not in other countries.
• To weigh something (verb): to carefully consider and compare facts or possibilities before making a decision.
• To overhaul something (verb): to completely change a system so that it is more successful.
• To pay dividends (idiom): to cause good results in the future.

In this text, there are several examples of reduced relative clauses. Under certain circumstances, relative clauses can be made more concise by removing the relative pronoun.

How to reduce relative clauses

Reducing relative clauses involves removing the relative pronoun (who, that, which, where, etc.) and often the verb ‘be’, to make sentences shorter and more fluent. This is only possible when the meaning remains clear. There are several main patterns:

Be + prepositional phrase: remove “which/who/ that + be” before a prepositional phrase:

‘The book which is on the table is mine’ → ‘The book on the table …’   ‘The day that is after a holiday is always hard’ → ‘The day after a holiday …’    ‘The dog that is on the rug is beautiful’ → ‘The dog on the rug is beautiful’

Passive voice (present or past): if the passive is used in a relative clause, remove the relative pronoun and auxiliary ‘be’:

‘The lessons which are taught by her are always interesting’ → ‘The lessons taught by her …’   ‘The cars that were damaged in the storm have been repaired.’ → ‘The cars damaged in the storm …’   ‘The documents which are printed today will be mailed tomorrow.’ → ‘The documents printed today …’

Continuous tenses (present or past): if the clause contains be + -ing, remove the relative pronoun and ‘be’, and use the -ing form:

‘The man who is giving the presentation is my old boss ’ → ‘The man giving the presentation …’    ‘The girl who was watching TV didn’t hear the phone’ → ‘The girl watching TV …’   ‘The shop which was selling my favourite ice cream has closed’ → ‘The shop selling my favourite …’

General actions or truths (present or past): when the verb describes a regular or general action, reduce the clause using the -ing form:

‘‘Students who attend this course improve their writing’ → ‘Students attending this course …’     ‘Devices that use solar power are becoming popular’ → ‘Devices using solar power …’   ‘Companies who take care of their employees are more profitable’ → ‘Companies taking care of …’

*Sometimes, reducing a relative clause changes the tense or intended meaning, or just sounds unnatural:

‘The actor who won the award gave a great speech’ → ‘The actor winning the award gave a great speech’ (This sounds like it happened at the same time, not one after the other)    ‘The teacher who owns the red car is outside’ → ‘The teacher owning the red car is outside’ (This doesn’t sound natural)

Examples in the text:

• One idea [which/ that is] being discussed in corporate boardrooms is called regionalization: a passive continuous form is used here and therefore we can remove the relative pronoun which/ that and the verb be.
• … shortening their supply chains through a similar strategy [which/ that is] called nearshoring: a passive form is used here and therefore we can remove the relative pronoun which/ that and the verb be .
• Some companies are also using a strategy [which/ that is] called reshoring: a passive form is used here and therefore we can remove the relative pronoun which/ that and the verb be.

https://yourenglishpal.com/grammar/english-grammar-cefr-levels/reduced-relative-clauses/

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