The Best Argument for Supply Chain Risk Management

Forget Eyjafjallajokull, and the ash cloud that didn’t exist. The biggest risk to your supply chain is not an unexpected natural disaster. It’s the people in, and around, your supply chain … and the nutjobs that will overreact when there is no plan in place to follow.

The best argument for supply chain risk management, as outlined in recent research from Manchester Business School (reference), is the simple fact that 88% of supply chain interruptions are the consequence of human action. This includes accidents, production problems and labour unavailability due to poor planning, strikes, thefts, and cyberattacks. This means that a good supply chain risk management strategy can mititage 9 out of 10 potential disruptions.

Moreover, if your risk management plan focusses on generic, and not specific interruptions, such as “our primary air carrier and/or mode of transport becomes unavailable for more than 3 days”, you can even mitigate the effects of some natural disasters! So get planning!