Supply Chain Risk Management

Supply Chain Risk Management

We have gone through a revolution in supply chain, reducing cycle times, greatly reducing inventories, and outsourcing manufacturing to lower-cost regions resulting in tremendous improvements to performance. But there has been a price to pay. It has made our supply chains longer, leaner, and much more vulnerable. The next revolution in supply chain must be about making them more resilient, while simultaneously continuing to improve in speed and cost. That will not be easy. As a pioneer in supply chain risk management, ChainLink has spent over a decade researching this area and uncovering the ways that companies can make their supply chains high performance and resilient.

To learn more about how ChainLink Research can help you with your Supply Chain Risk Management strategy, please contact us via email or call us

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Reimagining Regulations: Ideas from a Non-Policy-Wonk:

(Parts 1-2)

• Reimagining Regulations: Ideas from a Non-Policy-Wonk: Part 1 – Crafting cost-effective, gaming-resistant, outcome-achieving regulations is really hard to do — There is a perpetual battle between pro and anti-regulatory advocates. But that tug-of-war misses the point. We need efficient, effective regulation — or alternative mechanisms — that actually work, to ensure a well-functioning, non-abusive society. Here we explore some off-the-beaten-path ideas on how to achieve the (mostly) noble goals of regulation, without the (mostly) inadequate results and high expense of regulation.
• Reimagining Regulations: Ideas from a Non-Policy-Wonk: Part 2 – Innovations from other disciplines may reduce burdens, increase effectiveness of regulations — Creating cost-effective, gaming-resistant, outcome-achieving regulations is really hard to do. Outside-of-the-box approaches may be our best hope to solving many of the issues.
• Report: Supply Chain Risk Solutions: A Market Overview — There are many different solutions for dealing with supply chain risk. Here we present a framework for looking at the alternatives.

Co-Managing Supplier Risk:

(Parts 1-2)

• Co-Managing Supplier Risk: Part 1 – The Challenges of Managing Supplier Risks — Managing the risks imposed by suppliers and third party service providers has become increasingly difficult and expensive. In part one of this series we explore the reasons why. In part two we’ll look at a promising new approach to solving the problem without breaking the bank.
• Co-Managing Supplier Risk: Part 2 – A Case for Co-managing — A new approach offers the potential to manage risk across your entire supply base without breaking the bank. Your most highly paid resources can focus on strategic high-value work, while tactical tasks are co-managed by a third party.
• Pandemic Preparedness Resources — Tools for Business and Individuals to Proactively and Rationally Prepare for the Pandemic
• Supplier Risk and Compliance Management in Practice: Part One — The ability to manage supplier risk and compliance has become a critical competence for organizations. Our research shows why and how to manage and reduce supplier risk–what actually works in practice.
• Resilient Supply Chains: The Next Frontier — Advances in leaner and faster supply chains have come at the price of increased brittleness. It is time to make supply chains more resilient, and deal with risk more intelligently, to maintain the gains from lean strategies, and take performance to the next level.
• A Hot Summer — The hot market for Mergers and Acquisitions continues; and these deals are pretty big, overall. Last month we showcased several M&As. But that seems to be just the beginning of the story…
• Triangle Fire Revisited – in Bangladesh — Recent workplace disasters shine the spotlight on worker safety and supply chain risk.
• The Third Paradigm — We have evolved supply chain practices and systems from industrial age concepts to the information age; an age rich with connectivity and data. This has allowed us to change the foundational structure on how we manage the enterprise in an age of uncertainty.
• Report: Urgency for Supply Chain Resilience: Results from ChainLink’s 2011 Supply Chain Risk Survey — A measurement of the state of the industry: How far have we come? What kinds of investments are being made in resilience? How well are we actually managing risk? Based on a broad survey and set of interviews, we present the findings of this research study to explore answers to these critical questions.
• 2012 – the Year of Uncertainty — 2012 opens with a higher than usual number of ‘balls in the air’ and dramas at play across the world stage. Although the recovery seems to be taking hold, there are some scary scenarios for how world events might unfold that seem credible. Here we discuss the impact of this uncertainty on businesses and their planning and execution for 2012.

Managing Supply Risk Series: (Parts 1-4)

• Part One – Quantifying and Predicting Supplier Risk — How companies ensure continuous affordable supply by measuring supplier risk and anticipating potential supplier problems. Early warning gives companies a much broader range of options to deal with potential problems in a systematic way.
• Part Two – Supplier Business Continuity — Do your key suppliers have a working disaster recovery/business continuity plan if one of their plants or critical IT systems goes down? If you don’t know, you are inviting disaster.
• Part Three – Hedging Strategies: Cross-Functional Teams — Global dynamics ensure that commodity prices will remain volatile, with huge price spikes, for decades to come. Good hedging strategies are increasingly critical. Cross-functional teams are a great way to accomplish smarter hedging.
• Part Four – Hedging Strategies: Approaches — Learn from one company’s strategy and their approaches to hedging. And a discussion of financial instruments for hedging.

Sourcing in Times of Uncertainty — Sourcing and procurement professionals are used to dealing with large swings in demand and supply. But the highs and lows created by the recent bubble, recession, and recovery were difficult for even the most adept sourcing practitioners. There are some best practices and innovations that can help deal with not just uncertainty in demand and supply, but supplier failures, commodity price volatility, and supply chain risk.

Webinar Recording: Managing Supply Chain Risk: The Secure Supply Chain Technology Footprint — Impacts of various risks and the sources of insecurity; How to apply appropriate business change managements and technologies to make a real difference; What is the right technology footprint for addressing supply chain risk ; How to find the ROI needed to embark upon change projects today.

Mini Report: Risk Management Technology for the Supply Chain — Cyber Security, Compliance, Privacy, Supply Chain, Import Security, Anti-Counterfeiting, Critical Infrastructures and scary threats like fraud and piracy, ID theft, fraudulent checks, skimmers, phishing, malware, key loggers, and botnets afflict us all: from government, to business, to consumers, our lives are fraught with risk. Risk Management Technology is a growing sector, but the solutions are fragmented. See our new Solutions Guide chart in this report.


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