Tag Archives: infrastructure

10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

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10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

Socio-political unrest, labor shortages, wars, geological events, to pandemic concerns; these are just a few of the things that could affect changes in shipping patterns and/or logistics strategies.

Seemingly unrelated events halfway around the world can impact a shipment out for delivery, and there’s nothing your production or logistics teams can do about it. That’s the inherent volatility of a supply chain. It’s worse still for temperature-controlled logistics.

Therefore, the best you can do is mitigate the risk.

Shippers are urged to expect the worst and give it their best when handling high-value shipments, ensuring there’s enough care and contingency in place to mitigate unexpected risks.

The problem is, supply chain risk management is a costly affair, and that’s especially true for a cold chain. Nonetheless, it’s a necessary cost to avoid unnecessary loss, especially when you weigh the strategic importance of cold chains to improve, nay, save lives.

10 Things That Could Interrupt or Disrupt Your Cold Chain

Shipping high-value consignments over long distances within their prescribed temperature range — consistently and without excursion — is a collaborative effort.

  1. Pressure to Meet Cost Efficiencies in Cold Chain Management
  2. Lack of Uniform Infrastructure Globally Affecting Cold Chains
  3. Impact of Increased Regulations on Cold Chain Management
  4. Environmental Impact on Your Cold Chain
  5. Supplier Risk in Your Cold Chain
  6. Distribution/Delivery Risk in Cold Chain
  7. The Human Element in Cold Chain Risk Management
  8. Security Risk in Your Cold Chain
  9. Retailer Risk in Your Cold Chain
  10. Customer/Demand Risks to Your Cold Chain Logistics

How to Reduce Risks in Cold Chain Management

It’s no secret that cold chain assurance will cost you, but how can you run a lean cold chain while still mitigating the risks?

The key to dealing with unforeseen challenges is to prepare, plan ahead, and have enough contingencies, as well as a robust risk management strategy in place, supported by stringent processes and technologies.

How can you achieve that when the window to act and prevent losses can be a matter of hours or scant minutes?

You need a real-time cold chain monitoring system which can monitor your temperature-controlled shipments in-transit as well as in a warehouse.

Temperature data loggers only provide you with post-shipment audit trails, but with the number of weak links in your cold chain, you would need more actionable real-time data.

Read more at 10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

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Enabling Resilience in National Critical Infrastructure

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Growing concerns related to dependencies on software-reliant information communications technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are pushing changes in governance associated with supply chain risk management (SCRM). The possibility of disruption of critical infrastructure exists because the software that enables these capabilities is vulnerable and exploitable.

Exploit potential is often more about the vulnerability of assets in target organizations than the ingenuity of the attackers. Several breach reports show that the source vectors of attack are in software. Consequently, organizations expanding the use of network-connectable devices need comprehensive software security initiatives to address weaknesses resulting from technological vulnerabilities and a lack of “cyber hygiene” (lack of caution) among those who develop and use software applications and software-reliant IoT devices.

Exploitable weaknesses, known vulnerabilities, and even malware can be embedded in software without malicious intent. Indeed, sloppy manufacturing hygiene is more often the cause of exploitable software. Such poor hygiene can be attributed to the lack of due care exercised by supply organizations with developers, integrators and testers who are often unaware of or untrained on software security, compounded by inadequate testing tools and the failure of suppliers to prioritize addressing the risks associated with the poor security of the software they deliver to the organizations that use it.

How do organizations proactively protect critical infrastructure from being the victim of software provided by others? As a start, they use contracts to set supply chain expectations for their suppliers. Sample software procurement language is available for free to assist organizations in developing their contracts and establishing test criteria as part of software SCRM due diligence. Procurement criteria should contain these specifications, at a minimum:

  1. Software composition analysis of all compiled code found in the supplier product to identify all third-party open source components via a software bill of materials and to identify all known vulnerabilities listed in Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) in publicly available databases, such as the NIST-hosted National Vulnerability Database (NVD);
  2. Static source code analysis of all available source code found in the supplier product to identify weaknesses listed in Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE);
  3. Malware analysis of supplier-provided software to determine whether any known malware exists in that software, along with a risk assessment of mitigation controls;
  4. Validation of security measures described in the product’s design documentation to ensure they are properly implemented and have been used to mitigate the risks associated with use of the component or device.

Read more at Software Supply Chain Risk Management: Enabling Resilience in National Critical Infrastructure

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