Managing Risk To Avoid Supply-Chain Breakdown

摘要: Natural disasters, labor disputes, terrorism and more mundane risks can seriously disrupt or delay the flow of material, information cash through an organization's supply chain. The authors assert that how well a company fares against such threats will depend on its level preparedness, type disruption. Each supply-chain risk to forecasts, systems, intellectual property, procurement, inventory capacity has own drivers effective mitigation strategies. To avoid lost sales, increased costs both, managers need tailor proven risk-reduction strategies their organizations. Managing is difficult, however. Dell, Toyota, Motorola other leading manufacturers excel at identifying neutralizing delicate balancing act: keeping inventory, related elements appropriate levels across entire chain in rapidly changing environment. Organizations prepare for delays by "smart sizing" inventory. manager serves as kind financial portfolio manager, seeking achieve highest achievable profits (reward) varying risk. The recommend powerful "what if?" team exercise called "stress testing" identify potentially weak links Armed with this shared understanding, companies then select best strategy: holding "reserves," pooling using redundant suppliers, implementing robust backup recovery adjusting pricing incentives, bringing production in-house, Continuous Replenishment Programs (CRP), Collaborative Planning, Forecasting (CPFR) initiatives.