Understanding your supply chain to reduce the risk of supply chain disruption

Abstract

Supply chains are at the heart of the way in which organisations operate and compete today; they also play a critical role in overall organisation performance. In the context of increasingly complex and global supply chains, the actions taken to drive down costs are likely to drive risk into the supply chain. The frequency of supply chain disruptions is high and this paper offers practical advice to help reduce the frequency and cost associated with these. There is advice to help with the understanding of how to identify critical suppliers. The reader is guided through comprehensive risk assessment and mitigation approaches and a selection of practical risk solutions and tools that you can use is described. There is a section on the ‘dos and don’ts’ relating to supplier due diligence. For those organisations facing the challenge of drawing up a business case relating to investment in improving supply chain resiliency, there is also a section outlining some of the business benefits of improving supply chain resiliency.