4 steps to better manage global supply chain risks

To better manage global supply-chain risks and address any warning signs of fraud, abuse, and waste, Deloitte suggested companies take these four steps:

  • Know your supplier to identify and prioritise risk.

Gather information internally and externally to identify potential risks involving suppliers and business partners, including what relationships to government entities they have, how they are compensated, what the scope of the relationship is, and what compliance programmes they have. Run a background check on suppliers to detect potential risk indicators.

  • Map the volume of products flowing around the world.

Use mapping software to visualise product flows as lines whose thickness represent corresponding volumes. This type of map can reveal vulnerabilities, such as large volumes of supplies flowing into high-risk regions.

  • Identify, investigate, and confirm anomalies.

Review transactions for accuracy, authorisation, existence, and approval. Look for anomalies by, for example, assessing the responsiveness of the supplier, checking the information of an invoiced item and the rate charged, looking for any notations providing information about a transaction. Get documentation to vet gathered transaction data.

  • Track, manage, and learn from the information.

Establish a supplier database that contains compliance and risk data, such as audit history, total spend, and geographic location. Sort suppliers into risk tiers to help prioritise, manage, and enact corrective action plans.

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US Supply Chains More Vulnerable to Climate Risks

US Supply Chains More Vulnerable to Climate Risks

Lack of preparation currently leaves supply chains in Brazil, China, India and the US more vulnerable to climate risks than those in Europe and Japan, according to a report by CDP and Accenture.

Supply chain sustainability revealed: a country comparison also finds suppliers in China and India deliver the greatest financial return on investment to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate the strongest appetite for collaboration across the value chain.

The research is based on data collected from 3,396 companies on behalf of 66 multinational purchasers that work with CDP to manage the environmental impacts of their supply chains. They account for $1.3 trillion in procurement spend, and include organizations such as Nissan and Unilever.

Analysis and scoring of suppliers’ climate change mitigation strategies, carbon emissions reporting, target setting, emission reduction initiatives, climate risk procedures, uptake of low-carbon energy, and water risk assessment efforts, as disclosed by suppliers to CDP, were used to create a sustainability risk/response matrix that shows how well prepared suppliers across 11 major economies are to mitigate and manage environmental risk in their supply chains.

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