Given international tensions, the supply chain is emerging as the most important strategic lever for Walloon industrial SMEs. Logistics in Wallonia publishes a groundbreaking study based on practical experience and supplemented with a European perspective. The research points to the excessive fragmentation of the supply chain among manufacturing companies and the need for more innovation.
Health crises, geopolitical tensions, market instability, pressure on the energy market and increasing sustainability demands: recent years have dramatically changed supply chains worldwide. In this uncertain context, a reality is gradually emerging: industrial performance no longer depends solely on the ability to produce, but on the ability to coordinate complex, interdependent flows exposed to numerous risks.
Long relegated to a support function, the supply chain is now emerging as a strategic lever for competitiveness, resilience and transformation for SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Based on this observation, Logistics in Wallonia (LiW) publishes a groundbreaking study on the supply chain maturity of Walloon manufacturing SMEs, based on an approach that is firmly anchored in practice and enriched with a European benchmark.
Since 2017, Logistics in Wallonia has been carrying out 360° supply chain diagnostics. These are short interventions that take a snapshot of a company’s supply chain organization at a point in time and provide the company with a report with recommendations. These diagnoses have made it possible to build a solid base of direct observations from practice and form one of the pillars of this study. To broaden the perspective, in-depth discussions were held with sector federations, logistics clusters and European experts (from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands) and a cross-comparison was made with the major trends observed at European level.
This methodology makes it possible to map a reality that is often little visible: that of industrial companies that are confronted with complex daily decisions, where every trade-off between costs, deadlines, customer service and inventory levels can have a direct impact on their performance. The ambition of this study is not to propose a theoretical model, but to highlight concrete paths of progress, adapted to the constraints and resources of SMEs.
One of the most important lessons from the research is the highly transversal nature of the supply chain. This is not limited to logistics alone. It connects and structures all business functions: purchasing, production, planning, distribution and sales. It determines the ability to deliver on time, control costs, absorb shocks and meet customer expectations. In other words, the supply chain has become the backbone of industrial performance.
In practice, Walloon SMEs have numerous assets: flexibility, customer focus, professional knowledge. But they also have significant room for improvement to better structure their flows, better anticipate unforeseen circumstances and transform their supply chain into a real competitive advantage.
Six concrete levers to structure performance
- structuring supply chain governance aligned to the business model;
- increase data reliability and accelerate pragmatic digitalization;
- introduce a transversal steering mechanism based on relevant indicators;
- anticipate risks and strengthen the resilience of supply chains;
- optimize inventories and physical flows;
- sustainable coordination of demand, sales and production.
These pillars are not intended to standardize practices, but to provide a clear frame of reference so that each company can define its position and progress at its own pace.
Practice shows that:
- the supply chain is still too often fragmented across different functions;
- certain key parameters (stocks, lead times, planning) are determined empirically;
- risk management is still poorly structured;
- Digitalization is progressing, but is sometimes limited to isolated tools.
These are all elements that do not indicate a lack of capacity, but rather an opportunity to structure and scale up. The research also shows that supply chain performance is not only determined at the company level. In several European countries, improvements in competitiveness are also based on:
- bundling certain flows;
- the development of sectoral cooperation chains;
- better data exchange between players;
- a structuring of the logistics ecosystem.
In this context, innovation in the supply chain remains a decisive lever. Whether it concerns digitalization, artificial intelligence, new organizational models or collaborative logistics, the ongoing transformations must be continued and strengthened.
Bernard Piette, Managing Director of Logistics in Wallonia: “The supply chain is today at the center of industrial decisions. In an unstable environment, it becomes both a factor of resilience and a lever for differentiation. Walloon SMEs have real assets, but also a significant potential to better structure their flows and turn them into a competitive advantage. Our role is to guide them in this transformation in concrete terms, as close to practice as possible.”
The study can be downloaded via the following link
