Supply Chain Management: its Resilience and Criticality

Most C-Suite executives and Board members still take Supply Chain efficiency as a given, a green’s fee. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is seldom properly recognized…until recently. It is typically only during some type of crisis that the average consumer takes notice because there is some kind of business interruption or even disruption of our normal lives. You and I often take for granted availability of toilet paper, or flour. And what typically would just be an inconvenience, during a crisis, running out of protection masks, gloves, sanitization gel or breathers for hospitals can be a matter of life or death.

Just up until recently, SCM has been considered the back-office function part of the business, the trenches, the noisy manufacturing plant or distribution center. You roll up your sleeves, you work insane hours and you get the job done. And just like a first responder would tell you, it is OK, it is my job.

The problem comes when after decades of building effective and efficient Supply Chains (SCs) with cost reductions as the main targeted performance indicator, we have also developed lean, cost-effective more vulnerable, and less resilient SCs that break down during a mild crisis let alone a global pandemic. Trust us, food processing and supply has only seen the beginning of this…It usually takes some type of negative event to realize that we need to build both, efficient and resilient SCs that can stand and deliver against all odds.

At LINAR Advisors we implement SCM practices that deliver both: low-cost governance and process that don’t curtail the capacity to endure most disruptions. This is not an impossible paradox. We help our clients accomplish this balancing act every day.

Remember, while the probability that a particular disruption will strike a particular location at a particular time is very small, the likelihood of some crisis taking place somewhere at some time is extremely high.

We will help you be prepared.

 

Carlos Nieva and Ignacio Blanco-Traba

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