In mid-December I received a phone call from a mechanical engineering company that is a client of mine, telling me that some of its foreign clients in the machine tools sector still do not see the end of the tunnel in 2025. Even UCIMU - the Italian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association - confirms that the sector will improve in 2025 only by a few percentage points.
The mechanical supply chain is in trouble and companies must avoid a wait-and-see approach, waiting for geopolitical changes or the like. I mean, those who expect a stabilization of the international scenario would only waste precious time.
The cover table produced by Federmeccanica in mid-December based on statistic data gives a hint: the only macro sectors of the mechanical industry growing in 2024 are:
electrical machines and equipment : it is a consequence of the so-called "green transition", strongly based on electrical components and electronics; new technologies - from Renewables to Data Centers - make use of that type of components;
other transport equipment, which includes vehicles in the Defence & Aerospace sectors (not Automotive) and also the naval and railway sectors;
operators who can address these sectors without disrupting their business model are favoured
In reality, it is complex to get accredited in the Defense & Aerospace sector: in addition to the "technical" sector certifications (for example the 9100 Aerospace Certification), sooner or later it is necessary to address ESG issues, as many supply chains become demanding in terms of Sustainability.
In other words, changing supply chain requires a series of skills and obligations that SMEs have not taken into consideration until now, having lived in a comfort zone for many years: there has been a technological evolution but within the borders of the usual supply chains.
if you want to innovate, you need to create the conditions to earn credits in growing technological supply chains
It is no longer conceivable to look for orders simply by "looking around" at new sectors: this can be done at most by subcontracting companies (I do it habitually and get results).
OEMs, on the other hand, must also prepare themselves on an organizational level , something that the large industrial players are doing or have already done. This involves developing specific internal skills.
Not only that, even traditional supply chains will soon ask operators to comply, for example, in terms of Sustainability and Green Transition: even more it will happen within the technological supply chains that are the prerogative of large industrial groups.
The journey of supply chain diversification must be planned, especially diversification from the Automotive supply chain . But above all, it must be started immediately. Better if it happens with the search for alliances: the best way to start is to become aware of a non-temporary and irreversible change.
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