Yearly Archives: 2008

How to secure your supply chain – 5/7

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Revised on: 2015-09-02

With this post, number five in a series translated from the Swedish book “Säkra företagets flöden”, I am nearing a conclusion. I found the book by accident when reading a PhD thesis on supply chain risk from Sweden. There will be three more posts, including this one, seven in total. Previously, I portrayed the different categories of buyer-supplier relationships, and how they influence supply chain disruptions. Today I will look at sourcing strategies and how to or may how not to source.

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How to secure your supply chain – 4/7

Revised on: 2015-09-02

My previous post was part three of a series based on the Swedish business continuity handbook titled “Säkra företagets flöden” and looked at a checklist or questionnaire that can be used in assessing particular disruption risks in your suppliers or sub-contractors. Today’s post will deal with different buyer- supplier relationships and how they can be categorized, and how such relationships may or may not contribute to supply chain disruptions.

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Norwegian roads are slooooow…

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Revised on: 2011-03-22

In a previous post, a while I ago, I stated that Nowegian roads are dangerous…well, not only that, they are among the slowest in Europe, according to a newspaper article in Dagbladet. Comparing average speed on roads in 13 countries, it turns out that travelling in central Europe is several times much faster than in Norway.

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How to secure your supply chain – 3/7

Revised on: 2015-09-02

Today’s post is part three of my continuing journey through the Swedish handbook titled “Säkra företagets flöden” or”Secure the company’s flows”, as I have translated it. This part takes a look at a checklist or questionnaire that can be used in assessing disruptions risks in your suppliers or sub-contractors. The following checklist is not meant to be exhaustive, but serves as a gateway or teaser towards asking more in-depth questions, specifically suited towards your own company in the issues you yourself are facing.

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How to secure your supply chain – 2/7

Revised on: 2015-09-02

Continuing my previous post, which talked about raising the awareness towards disruption risks in general, today’s post will take a closer look at how to analyze your suppliers for potential disruption risks, and what questions that need to be asked to gain more insight into your supply chain. In essence, this post will provide some starting points for supply chain risk analysis. This the 2nd post in a series that reviews and translates into English some of the content in the book “Säkra företagets flöden” or “Secure the company’s flows” as I have translated it. The book was published in 1999 by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency.

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How to secure your supply chain – 1/7

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Revised on: 2015-09-02

This the first post in a series that reviews and translates into English some of the content in the book “Säkra företagets flöden” or “Secure the company’s flows” as I have translated it. The book was published in 1999 by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency and is a handbook in Business Continuity Management and Supply Chain Risk Management. This post will take a general look at what can cause a disruption to normal business operations and which question every business should ask when starting to analyze its own risk situation.

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How to secure your supply chain

Revised on: 2011-01-06

“Secure the company’s flows” or “Säkra företagets flöden” in the original Swedish language is the title of a handbook published in 1999 by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency, the Swedish eqivalent to FEMA in the USA. Although 10 years hold, much of this handbook still holds true. I found it by accident when reading a PhD thesis from Sweden on supply chain risk. This handbook deals with Business Continuity Management much more than just supply chain disruptions, but is well worth a read…for those capable of the Swedish language. For those not so versed in Swedish, in the coming days I will translate and highlight some of the topics covered in the book.

Reference

Giertz, E., et al. (1999) Säkra företagets flöden, Silfgruppen, Stockholm. ISBN 91 7097 056-4

Related

husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 1/7
husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 2/7
husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 3/7
husdal.com: H ow to secure your supply chain – 4/7
husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 5/7
husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 6/7
husdal.com: How to secure your supply chain – 7/7

Airports – vital to supply chains?

Revised on: 2011-03-29

Is the temporary shut-down of Bangkok’s two international airports important in a supply chain perspective? So far, the issue has been stranded tourists, maybe as many as 100000. Now it’s also becoming a major headache for the tourist industry and subsequently for Thailand’s national economy, loosing as much as $85 million per day, according to the BBC News. Not only that, air freight will also be impacted, but why is this important?
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Practical Supply Chain Risk Management

Revised on: 2011-08-07

Every once in while I come across articles written by leaders in the industry. that catch my attention. Robert J. Schneider is Managing Principal of Risk Management over at ISO, and in a recent article in Industry Week, he shares his reflections on supply chain risk management. As he sees it, effective supply chain risk management in the manufacturing organization goes beyond traditionally insured risks such as tangible assets and related liabilities; rather, it focuses on the assets as part of a process.

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Supply chain disruptions by pirates

Revised on: 2015-09-10

Yesterday I cited the press release of the Norwegian shipping company Odfjell, which no longer will send their tankers through the Suez Canal, but take the long route around Africa instead, hoping to avoid being hijacked by pirates. Maybe just in the nick of time, because now a supertanker full of crude oil has been hijacked by Somali pirates several hundred miles out to sea.

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Somali pirates forcing ships to make detour

Revised on: 2015-09-09

In an earlier article today I quoted several sources saying that shipping companies are now seriously considering avoiding the Suez Canal and take the long route around Africa instead. One Norwegian shipping company, Odfjell, has already started sending their tankers on the long route, as reported by the Norwegian newspapers VG and Dagbladet. How long until others will follow? That’ll be interesting too see…

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Thanks to Somali pirates no Santa is coming this year?

Revised on: 2015-09-10

In a previous article, 2 weeks ago, I voiced my opinion on whether Somali Pirates can shut down Europe’s supply chains. The fear of a major supply chain disruption seems more imminent now than before. Shipping companies are now seriously considering avoiding the Suez Canal and take the long route around Africa instead. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports that such move could endanger this year’s Christmas, with presumed presents not arriving on time to be sold from stores.

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Business Intelligence – a key element in Supply Chain Risk Management

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Revised on: 2011-02-28

In my postings on supply chain risk and supply chain disruption, there is one thing that I have overlooked: Business Intelligence. Well, not overlooked, maybe, but underestimated, because Business Intelligence is a key component in mitigating supply chain risk and also a key component in recovering critical information after a supply chain disruption. Now, there are two ways business intelligence can be managed: in-house and out-house or on-demand. In this post I will look at at on-demand complementary business intelligence, using the solution provided by Oco as an example.

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TRB 2009 – are you going there, too?

Revised on: 2011-03-29

Are you presenting at the TRB 2009, the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting? Personally I consider presenting an article at TRB as only inches away from having an article published in an academic journal. The reason is that you have to submit a full paper, not just an abstract, which is then fully peer reviewed by at least three referees, thus ensuring the quality of the paper. Below is the abstract of a paper I will present at TRB2009, the Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting, in Washington, DC, 11-15 January 2009.

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The Supply Chain Network Project

Revised on: 2011-05-06

Have you come across the Supply Chain Network or SCN? Not yet? Do you want to keep in touch with all aspects of the global supply chain network? SCN is a network of people, a network of ideas and information, a means for designing, building, improving and managing your physical network and a source for services to facilitate your network. The contributors on write about products and services they believe are unique, different and can add value to the supply chain.

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Risk – the dark side of supply chain management

Revised on: 2015-09-06

What is Supply Chain Rrisk? Supply Chains are exposed to a variety of risks that are unique to each supply chain. These risks are related to actions and events that are inside and outside of the supply chain. Supply Chain Risk Analysis seeks to identify these risks, their sources and drivers, and their impact on the supply chain. Supply Chain Risk Management seeks to establish mitigative and contingent strategies for how to deal with the identified risks and their potential impact on the supply chain.

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Conferences in Transportation and Supply Chain

Revised on: 2015-09-09

Looking for a list of conferences in supply chain and transportation-related topics? By accident, I came across a list on a website called interorganisational.org. Not only does it feature calls for papers for conferences, but also calls for papers for academic journals, complete with abstract or paper submission deadline. This makes it easy to select which one is next in line. The list is continuously updated, and although the website owner claims that they only “occasionally” upload call-for-papers, course announcements, open positions, etc., as far as I can see, the list is very complete.

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Sparse transportation networks – a nightmare

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Now it has happened again. Hardly a week goes by in Norway without a major supply chain disruption. Now the main (and practically only) highway beween the Northern and Southern part of Norway has been interrupted, prompting long detours on smaller roads. Not only that, the in fact only rail line between Trondheim and Bodø has been interrupted as well, a rail line that transports much of the goods between North and South Norway and is a major freight corridor. Normally, eight large freight trains pass every day. The irony is that this happened during construction work aimed at improving said road. In fact, this is the second time this year; in June the road and rail were closed for 12 days. This time, it’s looking like a couple of WEEKS!

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A Future Research Agenda for Supply Chain Risk

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Revised on: 2015-09-08

When Manuj and Mentzer (2008) wrote their article titled Global Supply Chain Risk Management, they used Ghoshal (1987) Global Strategy: An Organizing Framework for developing sources of risk and Jüttner, Peck and Christopher (2003) Supply Chain Risk Management: Outlining an Agenda for Future Research for developing risk mitigation strategies. However, THAT is not why I am taking a closer look at the latter today. What brought said paper to my attention were the two simple figures it used. Why are the figures so striking?

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Strategies for managing risk in multinational corporations

Revised on: 2015-09-03

In my post two days ago, reviewing the article by Manuj and Mentzer (2008) titled Global Supply Chain Risk Management, I mentioned that they cited a paper by Ghoshal (1987) titled Global Strategy: An Organizing Framework as one of their references for listing risk management strategies. Today, I will take a closer look at that paper. The word “supply chain” doesn’t even appear once in Ghoshal’s paper, but why is this paper so interesting in a supply chain risk perspective?

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