In recent years, the cumulative impact of war, geopolitical sanctions, a shortage of skilled labour, and a dependency on scarce critical components like semi-conductors has exposed weaknesses across global manufacturing operations.

At SEW-EURODRIVE it encouraged us to take a closer look at how our systems could evolve further to support greater resilience, adaptability and visibility across operations.

As production environments became more complex and unpredictable, we identified opportunities to strengthen areas such as material visibility, future demand planning, real-time scheduling, and cross-functional coordination to help teams respond faster and more effectively under pressure.

In this blog, SEW-EURODRIVE's global Chief Innovation Officer, Dr Hans Krattenmacher, explores why manufacturers need to rethink resilience from the factory floor up, the practical changes SEW-EURODRIVE has implemented across procurement and production, and how greater visibility, modularity and flexibility can help manufacturers reduce downtime and respond more quickly when disruption occurs.

In this blog we cover:

• Why proper inventory management and departmental alignment can alleviate supply chain anxiety

• How multi-sourcing components makes your production planning easier

• Why strong supplier relationships help with demand forecasting and shortening lead times

• How modular set-ups reduce the risk and impact of machinery breakdowns

• Why manufacturing resilience is about maintaining operational continuity when your competitors slow down

1) Why effective supply chain management starts with focused inventory management

New survey data from the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) shows short-term supply chain anxiety amongst worldwide procurement professionals has risen to 5.69 out of 6, up from 4.59 in Q4 of 2025. In response, firms are rapidly devising new strategies for resilience.

If you want to effectively manage your supply chain, you need to make sure your procurement and production processes are strongly aligned. Good communication between departments, with shared priorities from the outset means helps improve material planning, strengthens scheduling accuracy and reduces disruption when market conditions change unexpectedly. At SEW-EURODRIVE, we analysed our own supply chain to see where we needed to focus our efforts, identifying inventory management and multi-sourcing as critical areas for improving resilience of material supply.

In response, we scaled our storage capabilities across long-life goods and electronic components, increasing storage capacity for electronic parts from 128,000 to 213,000 storage spaces. We also intensified monitoring of global events that could impact component availability, including geopolitical disruption, natural disasters and material shortages. This transparency acts as an early warning system, alerting us to when and where we might see component shortages, and helping our operational teams identify risks earlier, prioritise resources more effectively and respond before issues escalate.

When disconnected drive systems aren’t sharing data in real-time, the true operational status of manufacturing production lines is obscured, creating hidden bottlenecks while delaying decision making. If you don’t know what components are where, what’s delayed, or which issues are arising second-by-second, you lose the ability to react to potential crises in good time.

2) How diversifying your supplier base helps strengthen resilience

Beyond our proactive monitoring and inventory planning, SEW-EURODRIVE has also expanded its multi-sourcing strategy for critical components.

This has reduced our reliance on single suppliers or regions, so that if one part of the world is facing higher disruption, we can turn to a manufacturer the other side of the globe to keep our own production moving.

We source both identical and interchangeable components, and functionally equivalent alternatives, which perform the same actions, but may require engineering validation to make sure it fits the product design.

For manufacturers relying heavily on electronic components and semiconductors, this has become increasingly important.

At SEW-EURODRIVE, we analysed the full semiconductor supply chain, from chip development and production systems through to materials processing, manufacturing and final assembly locations. What became clear was that complete regional self-sufficiency in semiconductor production is realistically impossible.

Supply chains span multiple countries across Asia, Europe and the US, while industrial manufacturers are also competing for supply against high-volume sectors such as automotive manufacturing and consumer electronics.

This makes visibility, forecasting and proactive planning essential. Understanding where risks exist within the supply chain allows manufacturers to respond earlier through better inventory management, strategic sourcing decisions and more effective production planning.

3) Why supplier relationships matter more than ever

Building resilience is not just about stockholding or sourcing alternatives. Strong supplier relationships are equally important.

At SEW-EURODRIVE this includes sending consistent demand notifications, expanding ordering horizons, and a focus on long-term strategic partnerships, rather than wholly transactional, short-term purchase agreements.

Our no cancellation commitments, 24-month order horizons and shared forecasting with our suppliers underlines the importance of collaborative planning across the wider supply chain. This creates greater stability not only for SEW-EURODRIVE, but also for suppliers managing their own production capacity and material planning.

A practical example, with one of our injection moulding partners in Germany, has shown how closer supplier cooperation can improve operational continuity for everyone involved.

Together. we established a framework contract for 50 tonnes of raw granulate with upstream suppliers, while maintaining stock onsite for up to three months. Finished parts were then held in stock for a further two to four weeks, before delivery just-in-time directly to us.

The result was shorter lead times, improved material availability and greater flexibility when responding to production changes.

4) The reality of fragile operational set-ups compared to modular set-ups

When manufacturers rely on specialised equipment and rigid production architectures, a single drive failure or the inability to get a critical spare component like a semi-conductor can make production grind to a screeching halt.

This is why visibility matters so much, acting as an early warning system for when stocks are getting low, so we can manage risk with earlier ordering and better inventory management.

Our customers need security, but our so do our suppliers. If procurement is stable and consistent, then production is too.

With lost output and delays in order completion, the pressure falls squarely on the shoulders of busy maintenance teams to quickly get operations up and running again when parts fail. And even worse, if you’re relying on remote support alone, the issue could take days or weeks to be diagnosed and solved. In a traditional factory environment, where technology hasn’t yet been integrated into day-to-day processes, even a single drive failure can stop an entire line.

Modular production set-ups reduce this risk by breaking larger systems into smaller units that can operate independently of one another. When it comes to fixing issues, faults can be identified and isolated earlier, and if machinery hardware needs swapping out, lines can be reconfigured, maintaining uptime.

This means production can be redirected or rebalanced across available sections of the factory, instead of waiting for an entire central control system to restart functioning.

At SEW-EURODRIVE, the modularity also supports resilience from a procurement and lifecycle perspective. By focusing on a smaller number of product families and more standardised components, we can reduce dependency on a large number of suppliers and more standardised components, while still delivering customer-specific drive solutions. This standardisation helps improve component availability, simplify sourcing and maintain shorter lead times even when the rest of the industry is struggling to produce.

5) Why resilience is about maintaining operational continuity

Building resilience should begin where your day-to-day production decisions are made – which is usually the factory floor.

At SEW-EURODRIVE, we’ve been championing the software-defined factory. This is where flexibility is built into production lines from the start, removing a reliance on rigid hardware systems, and instead focusing on how systems can be built around the technology they’ll be using.

Improving visibility across production, through sensors on every drive or key piece of equipment, supports faster decision making. This helps engineering teams respond better to developing faults through a predictive maintenance approach that proactively identifies performance issues, before they lead to unplanned downtime.

Ultimately, manufacturing resilience is about maintaining operational continuity when your competitors are slowing down their production. If you’ve put time and effort into the right proactive strategies, you can maintain customer confidence and respond faster when disruption occurs.

When procurement is aligned with production, factory floors are built with modularity in mind, and real-time operational data is built into everyday decision-making, your operational teams are far better equipped to reduce downtime, protect productivity, and adapt under pressure. Resilience becomes a competitive advantage rather than simply a risk management exercise.

Want to improve your production flexibility, reduce downtime, and respond faster to changing demand?

Speak with our experts to see how our drive systems help keep your operations running reliably.

FAQs

Why should procurement and production teams work closely together?

When procurement and production teams share demand forecasts, inventory data, and operational priorities, manufacturers can improve scheduling accuracy, reduce shortages, and respond faster to market changes.

How do modular drive systems reduce downtime?

Modular systems divide production into smaller, independent units. If one system fails, the rest of the production line can continue operating, helping minimise downtime and maintain normal output.

What is a software-defined factory?

Software-defined factories are flexible production environments that use a software-layer based approach to control and optimise production rather than relying on hardware.

How can manufacturers reduce dependence on single suppliers?

Manufacturers can reduce supplier risk by adopting multi-sourcing strategies, increasing inventory for critical components, and monitoring geopolitical or market events that could affect material availability. Partnering with suppliers, like SEW-EURODRIVE, who use multi-sourcing within our own supply chain, can also help strengthen resilience.