"This has been a really strong evolution going from the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, to take fat out of the supply chain, to tighten down everything," says supply-chain management expert Rich Weissman. He says in the past 10 years companies have come to really rely on analytics to fine-tune supply chains to make sure that supply and demand absolutely line up. And that's where I think we've gone too far.”

The heavy dependence on China across industry verticals is an obvious example of the sole-sourced nature of today’s supply chains.

The latest EY attractiveness survey - which examines the performance and perceptions of European countries as a destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), revealed that post-COVID-19 there will be an additional lens front and centre: the need to juggle cost and resiliency.