Companies are now tweaking their lo-gistics to give themselves more flexibility should anything go wrong. For instance, instead of relying entirely on manufacturing in low-cost regions, they may put part of their operation—perhaps a rapid-response warehouse or a second factory-closer to, or even inside, the big consumer markets of America and Europe. This will increase costs, but could prove worthwhile by providing greater responsiveness as well as an insurance against risk. Such moves might even put a modest brake on globalisation, although trade flows-especially to, from and within Asia-are likely to continue to grow strongly (see chart 1 on the next page).
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