Securing enterprise resilience with effective Supply Chain Risk Management strategies

ACROSS nearly every industry, an organisation's supply chain is its lifeline. It plays a key role in ensuring productivity, profit and business continuity. Consequently, an enterprise's safeguarding of its supply chain is of paramount importance to minimising risks to its financial success, reputation and operational performance.

- By Shanthi Rajesh

An organisation's supply chain vulnerabilities increase not only depending on transactions with clients and any outsourcing to vendors, but also during times of uncertainty. Several factors from globalisation to high demand and supply, and the business demands of other organisations, also influence the workings of supply chain management. It follows that, as technologies develop and advance, mitigation strategies are equally required to evolve and reinforce enterprise infrastructures to prevent collateral damage. This process of adapting to identify vulnerabilities is known as Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM).

Once recognised, the next step in addressing and mitigating of risks requires a comprehensive review of logistics, supplier relationships and overall operational strategy. Many companies are turning to technology to aid in risk assessment. Software platforms are rapidly developing accessible and scalable means of analysing data trends to better facilitate decision-making. The predictive analytics of these technologies pose a range of advantages because of their ability to forecast potential disruptions, giving businesses a game changing head start in planning effective contingency plans and response strategies.

Some key statistics to note:

75% of companies experienced supply chain disruptions in the last year¹

Average financial impact of a disruption: $184 million²

Examples of recent supply chain disruptions: