External factors such as economic risk, political risk, and as we saw in 2020, pandemics, can all have a significant impact on a business. One industry in particular that is heavily influenced by these factors is manufacturing. Not only do these factors have influence on manufacturing but all aspects the industry touches. This was extremely evident during the pandemic as the global supply chain was completely disrupted. The knock-on effect of this has been higher prices on goods, shortages on production materials, and increased wait times on production. Delays and shortages for critical materials like microchips have caused prices of items to skyrocket due to the time it takes to source them and also the scarcity caused the demand to increase. This has also influenced evolution in manufacturing to include more automation so that the risk of future supply chain disruptions is lessened. "To do that, they will increase investment in supply chain technologies like Al and analytics, robotic process automation, and control towers while retraining workers" (Harapko, 2023). One of the major political risks has been the war in Ukraine. The true impact on the world, let alone business is not yet known but will be felt for years to come as 80 percent of businesses surveyed by KPMG "assume that the Ukraine war will negatively impact their company for longer than a year." (Schmelzer & Glunz, 2022). For the manufacturing sector, the sanctions, and transportation disruptions have really made it difficult to supply goods to consumers. This is "due to the start of the war and the sanctions imposed, direct supply chains with Russia and Ukraine, but also supply chains vie Russia to Asia, have broken down." (Schmelzer & Glunz, 2022)