RSM US Supply Chain Special Report 2025: U.S. And Canada – International Trade & Investment

Key takeaways

As they navigate the evolving trade and tariffs landscape,
supply chain decision makers at middle market companies are
prioritizing technology investments, compliance and outsourced
services to optimize supply chains further and adapt to changing
regulations, according to findings from a recent RSM US LLP
survey.

In the survey—conducted by Big Village Insights and
fielded March 5−14, 2025—62 per cent of respondents
said their organization was very effective at managing inventory
levels to minimize costs, and another 33 per cent said the
organization was somewhat effective at doing so.

The sample comprised 309 supply-chain decision makers and
influencers (259 from the United States and 50 from Canada) across
a variety of industries, working in organizations with annual
revenue between $10 million and $1 billion.

Sixty-five percent of respondents described themselves as the
sole supply chain decision maker within their organization, and 29
per cent said they are part of a decision-making group or
committee. More than half (55 per cent) of respondents were from
organizations with $50 million to less than $500 million in annual
revenue, 24 per cent came from organizations with $10 million to
less than $50 million in revenue and 21 per cent were from
organizations with $500 million or more in revenue.

Respondents reported that the items most important to their
supply chain efforts over the next 12 to 24 months were
sustainability—broadly referring to supply chain
resilience—and keeping up with compliance, with 56 per cent
rating each a 9 or 10 on a 10-point importance scale. These were
followed by inventory management, profit visibility and risk
management, each at 51 per cent. Automation and cost reduction were
at the bottom of the list of ranked items, with 44 per cent of
respondents saying those were highly important items for supply
chain efforts.

The survey results follow years of supply chain disruptions
sparked in 2020. Those bottlenecks were a wake-up call for many
companies, especially those in the middle market, to improve supply
chain visibility and resilience overall. While larger businesses
may have more resources and capital to pivot supply chains or
operations quickly, midsize companies don’t always have that
option readily available. Now, with new factors including tariff
disruptions driving some uncertainty for global supply networks,
using technology to improve supply chains will become even more
important.

Most organizations said in the March survey that they felt ready
to weather the storm; a majority (85 per cent) of respondents said
they were very prepared or somewhat prepared to handle the rollout
of potential new trade and tariff stances in the next six to 12
months (28 per cent felt very prepared and 57 per cent felt
somewhat prepared). Still, perspectives on the impact of those
trade and tariff stances vary—especially between Canada and
the United States, with 76 per cent and 87 per cent of respondents,
respectively, saying they were prepared to some degree—and
there has been significant change in the tariff landscape since the
survey was fielded.

“The pandemic forced businesses to improve supply chain
data and have better information overall about where goods were
coming from,” says Dr. Tu Nguyen, RSM Canada economist.
“While things seem to be a lot better now, the current
uncertainty in the trade environment could be another wake-up call
for businesses that still don’t have the best transparency or
visibility into their supply chain.”

Respondents were asked a series of questions evaluating their
current supply chain processes. While nearly all (93 per cent)
expressed confidence in the accuracy of their data for decision
making, nearly as many agreed they need to invest in technology to
become more effective at managing operations (91 per cent). There
was a strong interest in new technologies, with nearly 9 in 10 (88
per cent) agreeing they would like to explore how artificial
intelligence can best be deployed to achieve success.

Most companies surveyed already have systems in place to harness
data throughout their supply chains. On a scale of 1 to 5,
respondents reported a surprisingly high level of digital maturity
in their supply chains:

• 0 per cent rated their digital maturity at
  Level 1 (Data is gathered ad hoc and manually.)




• 3 per cent rated their digital maturity at
  Level 2 (Data is available but inconsistently entered and
  maintained.)




• 28 per cent rated their digital maturity at
  Level 3 (The company has a big data solution and gathers data from
  critical inputs.)




• 47 per cent rated their digital maturity at
  Level 4 (Data is gathered from every function and automatically
  analyzed by BI or another data stack.)




• 21 per cent rated their digital maturity at
  Level 5 (Enterprise data is unified to a single source of
  truth.)

These figures might indicate just how important supply chain
visibility—and the use of data to improve that
visibility—has become in the last few years, according to RSM
US management consulting principal Jake Winquist.

“Far more companies have started thinking about their
supply chain as a strategic asset rather than a cost center,”
he says. “Supply chain disruptions happen to everyone, and
companies see supply chain risk and resilience as priorities
now.”

Access the full report now to learn more about the survey
findings and related insights, including:

• Respondents’ perspectives on the tariff environment




• Steps companies are taking to prepare for compliance with
  specific regulations




• A U.S.-Canada breakdown of the survey findings




• Respondents’ tax optimization priorities and methods for
  mitigating risk




• Avenues companies might explore to reduce risk in their supply
  chains




• How outsourcing can help middle market companies navigate the
  complexities of global supply chains




• A sector-specific breakdown of the survey findings

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