Whitepaper Wednesday - Supply Chain Risk Management

Welcome back to another installment of Whitepaper Wednesday here on the Purchasing Certification Blog. Today, I'll be reviewing a whitepaper entitled "Essential Characteristics of a Supply Chain Risk Management Strategy" from Kinaxis.

This whitepaper starts off by essentially segmenting supply chain risks into two categories: those that are anticipated and those that are not. Obviously, the more effort you can put into identifying risks, the less likely you'll experience a risk that is unanticipated, although unanticipated risks certainly can - and do - happen.

For those risks that you do identify, the whitepaper suggests a three-phase approach to managing them:

• Visualize and understand risks that apply to the supply chain. The whitepaper lists several categories of risks, including: natural disasters, flu/pandemic, economic risks, political risks, transportation, unstable demand, and unstable supply.
• Measure and prioritize the risks.
• Take action. Decide which risks need to be addressed and develop mitigation strategies for those risks.

The second half of the whitepaper goes on to discuss managing "unanticipated events." The whitepaper defines an unanticipated event as "a disruption that despite best efforts was not foreseen, and therefore a mitigation strategy has not been prepared."

The whitepaper notes that "the speed with which the company reacts and responds [to unanticipated events] can mean the difference between an insignificant blip and a full-scale crisis." The whitepaper concludes by listing six capabilities that a risk management assessment and response tool should have to assist companies in their management of unanticipated events.

At 11 pages, this whitepaper more thoroughly covers the topics that I have summarized here and is a worthy download. You can get your own copy of the whitepaper from Kinaxis' Web site (registration required).

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
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