According to a recent report from BDO USA, an accounting and consulting organization, manufacturers’ intellectual property, supply chain data and products have become prime targets for cyber criminals.
The 2016 BDO Manufacturing RiskFactor Report examines the risk factors in the most recent 10-K filings of the largest 100 publicly traded U.S. manufacturers across five sectors including fabricated metal, food processing, machinery, plastics and rubber, and transportation equipment.
The factors were analyzed and ranked by order of frequency cited.
Manufacturing Industry Serves Up New Risks
The manufacturing industry is getting mixed reviews.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Index reported that activity was up in April after five straight months of declines.
Then, in late May, the Purchasing Manager’s Index reported the first reduction in output since September 2009.
In the trenches, manufacturers say domestic demand has been solid, while global business has been more challenging. And the end customer matters: in a recent earnings call, Caterpillar’s CEO noted, “Just about any market that’s away from oil is doing pretty good.”
“Pretty good” is a modest but realistic goal for manufacturers this year, and their top concerns echo this cautious optimism. The annual analysis of the most frequently cited risk factors found the supply chain remains at the top of the list – cited by 100 percent of manufacturers we analyzed – while emerging and growing risks in cybersecurity, competition, labor, pricing, regulations and international operations are also keeping manufacturers up at night.
Read more at Top 25 Risk Factors for Manufacturing Supply Chains
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