Promethea e UniCredit presented the "Industry and Supply Chains 2012" Report last December, with the objective of the competitiveness of companies on international markets starting from the two-year period 2013-2014. The idea of examining the dynamics of the production system stems from the need to strategically reconsider the size of the companies themselves and the supply chain approach can represent a winning model of aggregation. The district or supply chain is a socio-territorial entity characterized by active co-presence, in a limited territorial area, naturalistically and historically determined, of a community of people and a population of businesses not only highly concentrated from a sectoral point of view, but also in which the relationships between them complete the production process: relationships with other companies and people belonging to the district are privileged, with the competitive advantage of replacing economies of scale with external economies and, in particular, economies of relationships. Analyzing industrial performance from an integrated supply chain perspective can therefore help shed light on the links between the various stages of the supply chain, highlighting the strengths on which to leverage to develop greater competitiveness over time.
Because of collapse of domestic demand for consumer goods and services, in the next two years an Italian company that directs its offer abroad will have a premium in terms of demand of between 4-5 percentage points compared to a counterpart concentrated only on the domestic market. Faced with consumption and household incomes which in 2014 will be at the per capita levels of 1998 and 1986 respectively, it is enough to think that building investments are stuck at the levels of 1980, exports will be the only component of GDP to have recovered to pre-crisis levels. And so the markets in which companies will invest will inevitably condition the future of the supply chains, where an effective export strategy could ensure that full recovery in industrial production levels is brought forward by at least two years. However, internationalization is a complex objective especially for smaller and less structured companies. As a possible alternative way forward, the Report proposes thestrategic supply chain approach, i.e. aggregating in productive alliances as an antithesis to dwarfism and entrepreneurial individualism.
La system competitiveness it is described as a key variable of the scenario and broken down into a synthetic index for 13 supply chains and 5 phases. The supply chains that make up the index are food and beverages; automation; publishing; chemistry; building; electronics and precision instruments; mechanics; home appliances; electrical engineering; machines and plants; wood and furniture; metals; fashion. The phases that make up the index are: sourcing; first processing; intermediate processing; final productions; distribution. The competitiveness index, which takes into account the relative positions in each phase of the various supply chains, see share on foreign markets, debt sustainability and productivity, reaches its maximum in the supply chains of machines and plants, electrical engineering and mechanics. The result is the result of a homogeneous positioning of the different phases and precisely on this compactness it is possible to identify the strength of the Italian offer, its competitiveness and its excellence.
The results for the other “Made in Italy” sectors are different. In the'food, chemicals, household appliances and fashion the greatest contribution to the good positioning of the overall index depends above all on the final processes, with the progressive impoverishment of the more upstream stages. In the case of automation, electronics and electrical engineering, inclusion in global chains can offer the so-called subcontracting growth margins better than the general average, which overall sees an average annual growth in turnover for 8 out of 13 industrial chains of less than 1% for the two-year period 2013-2014. In this context, the strength of the brands in the final fashion, food and furniture products can guarantee a growth potential in China, Türkiye and other emerging markets to be penetrated, where a contribution to the competitiveness of the supply chain can also come from the more upstream stages, which today are paying above all for excessive financial fragility and credit crunch.
Profitability in 2014 appears to be lower for the phases at the extremes of the various supply chains, such as sourcing and distribution, the only one to also present a forecast of negative growth in turnover in the next two years. In the case of supplies, businesses pay for the country's lack of natural resources, but also for a cycle of payments that in Italy penalizes above all businesses further up the production chains. The distribution on the other hand, it will have to pay for the negative scenario of domestic consumption, a low international vocation and a highly fragmented supply system.
The report Prometeia-Unicredit concludes by proposing two types of solution to the dimensional growth and export strategy of companies: the classic merger between companies on the one hand, which remains the simplest and most direct in order to achieve high levels of productivity and efficiency, and that of the supply chain perspective on the other, through the creation of networks between companies with close partnerships between suppliers and customers, with a wider and geographically heterogeneous base of collaborations compared to production clusters of a predominantly local nature. Indeed, it is not difficult to explain the geography of FDI flows entering the national territory by looking at the productive structure of sectors and firms. Indeed, if the widespread diffusion of small and fragmented firms causes a scarce attraction of capital, the more diversified a production system is, the more capable it will be of absorbing external shocks.. Here then is that the most effective strategy seems to be that of adopt selective industrial policies capable of triggering virtuous mechanisms on a transnational scale, linking exporting companies to local production systems, both in Italy and abroad, and thus exploiting global opportunities through mergers between companies or the establishment of supply chains, thus fueling their competitiveness in the medium-long term. In other words, unity makes strength.
