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France Supply Chain and Sopra Steria Next present a study on supply chain resilience and transformation: current situation and outlook
A real momentum in resilience but there's still a lot of progress to be made
Paris, xxx 2025 - In a world faced with mounting crises, business resilience has become a strategic issue. France Supply Chain by Aslog and Sopra Steria Next, Sopra Steria's consulting practice, today publish an in-depth study that identifies the key determinants of this resilience, particularly in operations and the supply chain. The aim of the study is to help companies understand how to structurally prepare for future shocks.
Among its key lessons:
A lack of resilience in the face of crises - Overall company maturity index: 2.59 out of 4. Only 23% are at an advanced level, and none at the maximum.
Lack of supply chain visibility - Only 10% of companies have a clear view of several levels of their supply chain, exposing the rest to increased risks.
Ecological transition still too timid - 42% of companies measure their carbon footprint after the fact, but only 27% integrate this data into their operational decisions.
Resilience investments still too reactive - After every crisis, companies invest massively, but scale back their efforts once the emergency has passed, following a boom-and-bust pattern.
Supply Chain, a strategic lever still under-exploited - 42% of companies include it in their strategic planning, but 33% keep it at an intermediate hierarchical level.
"The COVID-19 crisis accelerated senior management's awareness of the importance of resilience and proactive risk management. Some companies have set up dedicated governance structures, including multidisciplinary teams (Purchasing, Supply Chain, Corporate Risk, etc.)." Declares Yann de Feraudy, President of France Supply Chain.
Growing awareness of the role of the supply chain in corporate strategy
42% of companies systematically include the supply chain in their strategic planning, and 21% do so regularly. Moreover, 42% have positioned it within the Executive Committee (Comex), testifying to its strategic importance. However, 33% keep it at an intermediate level (N-3/N-2 of the Managing Director), while 15% only include it in the Comex on an ad hoc basis.
Figure 1- Companies that deal with the supply chain regularly and at a high level in the organization have a higher resilience index than others.
Progress in resilience, but more needs to be done
2.59 on a scale of 4: this is the overall maturity index of the companies surveyed. Very few companies reached level 3 (just six, or 23%), the first level at which a supply chain can be considered resilient. None reach the highest average level. The five most resilient companies in the panel score close to 3.3.
When asked about actions taken to anticipate future crises, 42% of companies have already initiated localized changes or investments, while 21% have undertaken more far-reaching transformations. However, 27% have limited themselves to marginal adaptations, underlining the need to reinforce resilience strategies.
Philippe Armandon, Director of the Operations and Supply Chain Excellence practice, Sopra Steria Next: "In a world where instability has become the norm, the impact on Supply Chains is considerable - and will only grow. Our study reveals that most companies are still in transition: they perceive resilience primarily as short-term risk management, whereas it should be seen as a sustainable strategic capability. It is essential to evolve towards a Supply Chain capable of delivering on its customer promise in all circumstances. This transformation, though complex, is a major opportunity for those who can commit to it now.
Lack of visibility on suppliers and collaboration still in need of improvement
10% of companies have high visibility on several levels of the supply chain 41% have average visibility on first-tier suppliers. This situation exposes companies to the vagaries of supply and does not enable them to anticipate potential problems. 45% of companies rely fairly traditionally on formal contracts (SLAs). Only 28% prefer to collaborate on the basis of a high level of trust, beyond the contract, in other words, they know "who they can count on" in the event of a problem.
When it comes to purchasing and procurement, 59% of respondents consider that less than half of their critical supplies are secured with a business continuity plan (BCP). While 58% say they are investing in corrective measures, considerable work remains to be done to ensure optimum resilience of the upstream chain.
Distribution largely outsourced, with a predominance of 2PL and 3PL models
The majority of companies outsource distribution to specialized service providers, using the 2PL (37%) or 3PL (33%) model. Only 22% of companies consider their distribution scheme to be flexible within a short timeframe, while 45% believe their scheme to be more rigid and complex to maneuver. In this area, where collaboration and information sharing are key, 30% of companies consider that they collaborate with their service providers with a high level of trust.
Factoring environmental criteria into operational decisions
42% of companies adopt an a posteriori reporting approach to their environmental footprint, measuring the impact of their activities without systematically integrating it upstream into decision-making. Only 27% integrate environmental data into their decision-making processes, while 23% are in the early stages of doing so, limiting themselves to a limited scope.
This finding highlights the gap between strategic intent and operational implementation, particularly in the distribution function, where environmental impact still takes second place to economic considerations. This predominance of costs is holding back the adoption of sustainable logistics solutions, underlining the need for a transition to more responsible practices.
Information and Communication Systems: a tool for resilience
IS and the ability to communicate with its ecosystem play a central role in supply chain resilience. Yet only 12% of companies have so-called predictive and prescriptive information systems. The majority (58%) are still at a low or medium level of maturity in terms of their ability to communicate with their ecosystem and capture weak, upstream or downstream signals. Data exchanges via APIs and platforms are still in the minority, and cybersecurity is still a weak point, particularly among SMEs, which are often the weakest link in the chain. IS is one of the areas in which companies are investing the most, mainly through the implementation of APS, the reinforcement of security protocols with suppliers, and the integration of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions.
Figure 2- Preferred areas for resilience-related actions and investments - "localized actions and investments" + "planned structuring" responses added up and averaged
Expert vision
Mr. Walid Klibi, Professor of Supply Chain at Kedge-ISLI, and affiliated researcher at MIT-CTL : "Companies often react reactively to the investments required for resilience, adopting an approach known as 'boom-and-bust'. After a disruption, they tend to commit large sums to protect their operations and maintain business continuity, but these investments quickly diminish once the impact of the crisis has subsided. A new approach to funding resilience investments could be to integrate real options pricing into companies' budgeting processes. Rather than treating these expenses as reactive one-off costs following a crisis, companies could allocate funds proactively and on an ongoing basis by integrating them into employee capital, working capital and operating budgets. This method would allow investments to be optimized according to their impact on business continuity, and not just on the probability of a specific risk."
About France Supply Chain by Aslog
For more than 50 years, the France Supply Chain association has been pursuing its mission of bringing together companies, business schools and research organizations to innovate, share best practices and provide concrete solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Think and Do Tank, with over 450 member companies and schools, 800 active members involved in our projects, and an audience of 7,000 players, we promote exchange and collective action for a more robust and responsible Supply Chain. As of January 2025, the association' s public-interest activities will be carried out by the SUPPLY CHAIN 4 GOOD endowment fund, starting with projects to decarbonize and sustain our Supply Chains.
Press contact: Marie-Laure Laville - MLD Consulting - Tel: +33 (0)6 18 14 85 36 - mllaville@mldconsulting.fr
About Sopra Steria Next - Driving meaningful impact
With more than 4,000 consultants in 30 offices across Europe, Sopra Steria Next, the Sopra Steria group's management consulting and digital transformation firm, works every day to design and deploy the projects and transformations that will shape the future. In a world in the throes of revolution - technological, ecological - Sopra Steria Next combines business and technology to create value beyond the purely economic, by giving meaning to data, innovating thanks to artificial intelligence and engaging all stakeholders at every stage. Thanks to this vision and its expertise, Sopra Steria Next supports its customers in prioritizing their actions, for a concrete and sustainable result, for them, their employees, citizens and Society as a whole. It's about giving tangible impetus to what really counts, what's essential.
* Let's focus on the essentials, for a positive impact.
