Tag Archives: risk

Risk in supply networks – seeing it all, or not?

Revised on: 2015-09-11

It is practically impossible to write a paper on supply chain risk without citing Risk in supply networks by Christine Harland, Richard Brenchley & Helen Walker (2003). Why? Because it delivers a holistic take on risk, risk management and supply chains, and an excellent discourse on types of risk, sources of risks and descriptions of risk. Particularly, it relates risk to loss and consequences, and looks at how the increasing trend of product/service complexity, e-business, outsourcing, and globalization affects risks in supply networks.

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Lean logistics = risky logistics?

Revised on: 2015-09-11

A posting on Evolving Excellence called Long is not Lean caught my attention the other day. The author was lamenting over an article in Logistics Management that talked at length about the Downside of Lean Logistics and how lean means a supply chain that is more prone to risks and disruptions. Naturally, since Evolving Excellence is all about “Thoughts on Lean Enterprise Leadership”, of course they stood up for lean and defended it vigorously, and thinking about it, I have to agree that it is true, a lean supply chain is not necessarily a risky supply chain.

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Risk and Supply Chain Management – A Research Agenda

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Revised on: 2015-09-03

After a long break from reviewing actual supply chain risk literature, today I would like to return to the main thrust of this blog, namely supply chain risk. Today’s article, Risk and Supply Chain Management – Creating a Research Agenda, by Omera Khan, Bernard Burnes and Martin Christopher, was published in 2007 and provides and excellent, broad, and in-depth review of the literature on supply chain risk and locates this literature within the general literature on risk. The article concludes with the outline for a research agenda aimed at how supply chain risk can be fully understood and managed. Albeit exploratory and conceptual in its approach, the article provides valuable insights into the current literature.

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Enterprise-wide Risk Management

Revised on: 2015-09-15

Coming from a crisis management and business continuity background, I really enjoyed reading Enterprise-wide Risk Management: Strategies for linking risk and opportunity by DeLoach has a refreshing new approach to risk management that is is cross-functional, integrated and adaptable in the face of constant change, simply because traditional risk management approaches are no longer adequate in today’s rapidly changing world in where traditional risk management is too fragmented and function-driven.

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A Decade of Living Dangerously

Revised on: 2011-01-06

Do you remember the movie The Year of Living Dangerously with Mel Gibson? Topically unrelated maybe, but The Chartered Management Institute has just published The Decade of Living Dangerously, their Business Continuity Management Report, showing the current state of Business Continuity Management in the UK, and the development since 1999, hence the ‘catchy’ title. The report is an interesting read, because not all is well in the UK, despite the Civil Contingencies Act of 2004 that requires frontline responders to maintain internal BCM arrangements, but things are slowly improving.

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The IRM Risk Management Standard

Revised on: 2015-09-09

The Institute of Risk Management (IRM) is risk management’s leading international professional education and training body. Together with The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (AIRMIC) and Alarm (The Public Risk Management Association) they published their Risk Management Standard in 2002. Good corporate governance requires that companies adopt a methodical approach to risk management, and the IRM Risk Management Standard provides the toolbox. Interestingly, but perhaps not so surprising, that standard shares much common views with the current views on supply chain risk.

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Managing Supply Chain Risk

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Revised on: 2015-09-10

Did you know that the Supply Chain Council (SCS) has extended their renown SCOR-model to Supply Chain Risk Management? I just found out yesterday. A presentation from the the SCS website, available for download, details in full the changes to the SCOR model to account for Risk Management and how it integrates with the SCOR model risk enablers. As far as i am able to tell, this is an excellent framework for Supply Chain Risk Management, and it is worth taking note of.

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Supply chain disruption risk on the rise

Revised on: 2015-09-23

Global supply chains are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to potential disruption to trade, says Aon, one of the world’s leading providers of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage. 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 due to risks ranging from government embargo or interference with a supplier through to strikes, terrorism and sabotage.

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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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Supply Chain Risk – Business Continuity Management

Revised on: 2011-08-01

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.

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Assess the vulnerability of your production system

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Revised on: 2015-09-08

So far I have reviewed “international” literature and web sites, and it is only fitting that now it is time for the Norwegian “domestic” literature to be reviewed. Assess the vulnerability of your production system was written back in 1997, by Bjørn Egil Asbjørnslett and Marvin Rausand, both now high-profile academics within risk analysis in Norway.

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A risky business? The top 10 challenges of offshoring

Revised on: 2011-03-21

Organisations embarking on offshoring face multiple challenges; many of which can be extremely daunting. In A risky business? The top 10 challenges of offshoring the Director of Global Sourcing at EquaTerra, Sridhar Vedala, explores the top 10 challenges of offshoring today and provides suggestions on how to tackle them head on. Although there are many challenges associated with offshoring, through proper planning and due diligence, they can be overcome.

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Is Your Supply Chain Vulnerable?

Revised on: 2011-03-10

Recently I came across a report on Supply Chain Vulnerability published as early as 2002 by the Cranfield University School of Management on behalf of the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Home Office. The key findings from this research report into supply chain vulnerabilities are quite interesting.

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How to disrupt a supply chain

Revised on: 2011-02-25

This is a brief description of a model I developed for supply chain risk and vulnerability, with risks and disruptions on one side and the vulnerability and impacts on the other side: A typical supply chain consists of a company with incoming raw materials from an upstream supplier and outgoing products to a downstream customer, and is characterized by its locational and organizational design. There are many potential disruptions to a supply chain that may or that may not influence locational decisions. And finally, the impact and severity of disruptions depends on both locational vulnerability and organizational adaptability

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Flexibility and robustness as options to reduce risk and uncertainty

Revised on: 2015-12-02

Any company operating in international markets will face a multitude of risks. Acknowledging these risks and devising a strategy for how to deal with these risks is a prerequisite for survival in today’s competitive market. Assuming that the task to come up with a new strategy implies that the old strategy has outlived itself or at least has proven itself wrong on too many occasions, the stage is now set for a new approach. This paper will first present the main risks that are facing any company. Then, the available options to reduce these risks will be considered. Finally, in relation to these risks, flexibility and robustness will be introduced as a tool to handle uncertainties (risks).

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The reliability and vulnerability of transportation lifelines

Revised on: 2015-11-17

How can we assess how reliable or vulnerable the transportation is, and which parameters can we apply in measuring reliability and vulnerability? Transportation networks like freeways and interstate highways are the main backbone of modern society. Consequently, the reliability or vulnerability of any transportation network is thus a decisive factor not only in terms of market outreach and competition, but also in terms of continuity, to ensure a 24/7 operation of the community we live in. This research essay takes a closer look at vulnerability and reliability issues in transportation networks.

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Issues in visualization of risk and vulnerability

Revised on: 2011-08-04

Risk analysis tends to be a highly mathematically, statistically, and let alone probabilistically oriented science. Risk maps derived from risk analysis often portray only one possible scenario and do not leave much room for personal interpretation. Data on risks and hazards often tend to be heterogeneous, complex, inter-dependent, not directly comparable, and correlated in ways that are not immediately apparent. Visualization technology has emerged as a form of exploratory cartography, which can help explain, analyze and communicate risk. Because the risk analyst and the public in general may differ on what constitutes a risk or what not, visualization techniques can help the risk assessor better understand underlying factors and generate better risk maps, thus communicating a clearer message to the public. Examples of how risk should be communicated are presented and discussed along with current visualizations.

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