Posts inspired by published reports or whitepapers
Are UK businesses, and in particular London businesses, unprepared for the London Olympics in 2012? A recent report by Deloitte would suggest so. Over two-thirds of large companies in the UK expect the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to have virtually no impact on their ability to operate “business as usual”.
AON has now published a people risk map that shows which countries are high or low risk. The accompanying report provides a comparative overview of risks associated with recruitment, employment and relocation in 90 cities worldwide.
Supply chain integrity must encompass both operational and reputational dimensions. Companies must invest in enhancing the integrity of their supply chains, in a manner which balances operational objectives with reputational risks.
It is important to distinguish to between criticality and vulnerability when assessing the importance of the road and highway network. Collectively, these factors are an indication of the conditions, concerns, consequences, and capabilities that might cause an operating agency to label an asset “critical.”
The objective of the first project ‘Protection of Society’ (POS) or ‘Beskyttelse av Samfunnet’ (BAS, in Norwegian) was to describe how modern society will react to and can protect itself when facing modern warfare. In doing so, the report identified key components and functions that are essential to a modern society, and interdependencies between them.
New Zealand is probably not the fist country that comes to mind when thinking of state-of-the-art transportation lifeline engineering. Nonetheless, I think it is time to consider New Zealand as being one of the countries at the very forefront.
The report not only shows how many managers are aware of a specific Business Continuity Plan (BCP) covering critical business activities in their organization, but also tracks which of the risks identified are of particular concern to managers.
The Norwegian government intends to spend some 320,000,000 NOK ($45,000,000,000) on transport infrastructure over the next 10 years.Will Norway be able to save its crumbling infrastructure without a disaster like the Minnesota bridge collapse?
Instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. That is IBM’s vision of the supply chain of the future. The report features an interesting table, where these three characteristics are linked to SCM competencies and how they can be implemented.
Global supply chains are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to potential disruption to trade. Every year, Aon publishes a political risk map, and in 2009 the number of countries tagged with ‘supply chain vulnerability’ has increased from 38 to 54.
In overall infrastructure quality, Norway ranks 28/134, behind many other European countries, which is not too bad, but when it comes to road quality, Norway ranks 48/134, even behind countries such as Namibia (23/134), Tunisia (39/134) and Botswana (44/134).
How will the current financial downturn affect supply chains? The 2009 Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum takes a broad look, not a certain industries or sectors or parts of the economy, but looks at whole countries and their risk preparedness.
Already in 2005, the IBM Center for the Business of Government published “Investing in Supply Chain Security: Collateral Benefits”, a report which highlights how certain security investments can create collateral benefits well beyond the immediate security breach they were aimed at.
While waiting for the Global Risk Report 2009, the continuation of the Global Risk Report 2008, on which I have reported earlier, it may be time to read the other risk reports by the World Economic Forum.
Transportation recovery plans need to look beyond their mere purpose of addressing hazards in the transportation network. The transportation network is essential to many community. This implies that the restoration of the transportation network also means the restoration of the economy and the society, not just the infrastructure.
It is now frightening to see how true the predictions in this report were in Global Risks 2008, a report prepared by the World Economic Forum. I can only hope that the global financial turmoil does not translate into a global supply chain turmoil.
My daily morning routine includes a cup of coffee while watching the World Business Report on BBC World News. Today they had a special report on America’s crumbling and failing infrastructure.
Supply chain disruption – a global issue? All companies and governments dependent on external suppliers are exposed to the risks of disruption in their supply chain. Even a relatively small supply chain disruption caused by a local risk event may ultimately have consequences across the global economic system.
The paper defines the concept of vulnerability as it applies to production systems and is built around three concepts: A taxonomy of vulnerability factors as a basis for or guideline in establishing scenarios.
An input/output model to describe production systems.
A two-step vulnerability analysis for productions systems.
Organisations embarking on offshoring face multiple challenges; many of which can be extremely daunting. Sridhar Vedala, Director – Global Sourcing at EquaTerra explores the top 10 challenges of offshoring today and provides suggestions on how to tackle them head on.
