Towards a “relocalization of the world”
“I am a specialist in the maritime economy and have noticed that, for 10 years, world GDP has been growing faster than maritime transport. It had been the opposite during the 1980-2010 years of globalization. More and more, we produce locally for our region.
Thus, we produce European for Europe, Asian for Asia, American for America. In short, we are witnessing a relocation of the world and its means of production to bring them closer to consumption areas.
>> Read here a dossier from the daily La Croix and its consideration by the Davos 2022 summit
The impact of the 3rd phase of the digitization of the economy
This change is made possible by the third phase of digitization (of our economies after the internet and then the development of e-commerce). Digital technology has now entered factories and has enabled theproduction automation. Result: the production costs for a product made in France are very close to that of a product made in China. Tesla’s model is, in this regard, exciting. The electric car manufacturer has thus decided to produce in Germany for Europe, in China for Asia and in the United States for America. Similarly, it is now possible to order a product on an e-commerce platform and receive it two days later. Yesterday I was at Decathlon, which is developing a factory in France to produce sports shoes. They were generally, previously, made in Asia.
Hiring on the rise to optimize new needs
The new model will therefore be to buy on an e-commerce site linked to the production sites with logistics allowing the product to be received within a week. In France, this revival is also facilitated by the possibility of having “green” energy and recycling plants to dispose of relatively inexpensive raw materials.
Consequences for the logistics functions: it will be necessary to hire even more specialists in these questions to optimize all these transports. In addition, to deliver products in manufacturing on demand, logistics will have to be even more efficient, supported by artificial intelligence (AI) to know which route to prefer, to serve, sometimes in two days, the end customer.
Talent specialized in AI and big data
All of this will require talent for logistics jobs that will prove to be increasingly decisive. I’m betting that a logistician with knowledge of AI and massive data management (big data) will be a profession of the future. This relocation of the world will therefore develop logistics professions. And if – it’s the geographer in me speaking – the candidate has a good grounding in geography, it will only be the better”.
* The (re)localization of the world, Cyrille P. Coutansais, CNRS Editions, 2021.
