| Integrating business continuity criteria into your supply chain
Most organisations have a supply chain that is a mix of competencies, from manufacturing to professional advisory services. Developing business continuity strategies and embedding business continuity processes into an organisation’s procurement process can enhance the organisation’s ability to actively assess vendor capabilities. By creating a flexible framework for augmenting, retaining, or shedding vendor competencies in order to assure supply chain integrity, the organization can meet customer demand, customer expectations and generate consistent performance. No one company can deliver end-to-end products and/or services in today’s complex business environment. Your company, like other companies is most likely dependent on vendors of various types (manufacturing, profession services, software, transportation, etc.) to meet customer expectations. Four basic assumptions form the underlying premise for this article: Complexity: companies today are complex and their procurement processes are complex management systems operating within multiple networks; Touchpoints: all of a company’s touchpoints (downstream & upstream) within its networks must be considered to effectively evaluate risks, threats, hazards and vulnerabilities to determine the effects and consequences of degradation on the entire system; Responsiveness: actions at any given level within the network may be inadequate unless the entire network responds in kind; Resource constraints: most levels and groups within the company and the supply networks supporting the company lack the resources and specialised skills to know what to do to maximise operational resilience within the network.
•Date:
22nd October 2004 •Region: US/World •Type:
Article •Topic: BC
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