2H 2023 Manufacturing M&A Report

Labor issues and reimagining supply chains were the big stories of 2H23. Finding solutions may shape the biggest opportunities in the years ahead. Automation, friendshoring, supply diversification, and onshoring create an interconnected web of levers to pull, each affecting the other. Frustrated by just-in-time delivery and offshore manufacturing and supplies, there’s been a push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. But as demand for labor ramped up in 2023, manufacturers went from struggling to find workers to struggling to pay them enough to stay on the job, resulting in a series of strikes involving some half million workers spread over 400 strikes, from United Auto Workers to airline pilots and Hollywood writers and actors.