Helping Procurement Professionals Build Resilience in Their Own Supply Chains

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) has launched a free online tool to support procurement and supply management professionals and those with an interest in buying to develop resilience in their own supply chains.

A CIPS survey in 2016 of 900 professionals revealed a growing awareness that unmitigated risk can have disastrous consequences for companies in terms of revenue and impact on margins.

Of those surveyed, 46% ‘sometimes’ have mitigation strategies in place and yet 52% expected the same level of service from their suppliers in the event of a disruption.

The Risk and Resilience Online Assessment Tool helps procurement professionals to identify where specific risk exists in their supply chains in seven key areas:

Geographical. Restrictions on commodities or trade tariffs can have devastating effects on supply chains along with environmental concerns and reputational damage.

Functional. Poorly conceived strategies and poor systems controls can make critical parts of the supply chain high risk.

Performance. Suppliers may be engaging in bad working practices or failing to provide the right product, at the right time, to the right place.

Technical. An inadequate level of internal security surrounding IT systems could lead to cyber risk and loss of customer, or partner data and loss of revenue.

Governmental. Actions from governments could influence the movement of goods, with sanctions and embargoes and could affect reputation if found to be supportive of human rights abuses.

Ethical. Dents in customer confidence will affect revenue streams and reputation, disaffected workforces can produced delayed, poor-quality goods.

Legal. Breach of laws and statutes will cause delays and issues in supply chains. Diligence is required to ensure suppliers and contractors are also compliant.

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