Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) has many similarities with Business Continuity Management (BCM). As companies sourced their materials from sources further and further away, and as customers were increasingly spread around the globe, the logistics chains grew more and more complex, the field of Logistics grew into Supply Chain Management.
Business Continuity Management
Business Continuity Management is an interdisciplinary science and concerned with how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical function(s) within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption (Wikipedia). With supply chains stretched around the globe, it is easy to see how a supply chain disruption situation quickly can develop into a business continuity situation. That is why Supply Chain Risk Management can and should draw upon Business Continuity Manageemnt for advice.
A well-handled supply chain disruption can mean business continuity, while an ill-handled supply chain disruption can mean business dis-continuity.
One of many good references for further reading on this subject, and which I have reviewed on this blog is the The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management.
The link between business continuity and supply chain risk is also excellently described in Helen Peck’s 2006 article, where she synthesizes supply chain vulnerability, risk and supply chain management with corporate governance, business continuity, national security and emergency planning.
