|
The procurement department’s role in business continuity management By Derek Taylor Supply chains today are extremely complex — and as they are now global, they are extremely long as well. This scope and complexity creates a web of interdependencies that is hard to track. Indeed, many companies live in ignorance of the risk posed by one part of their supply chain: until disaster strikes. Supply chains are multilevel and comprise the flow of goods and materials, information and money within and between organizations. The outward manifestation of supply chain is the physical transport and distribution networks that move goods from one point to another, but as important are the communication networks across which information passes. Today’s supply chains, with their emphasis on efficiencies and just-in-time delivery are hugely dependent on these less visible networks. Watch for the risks The second major category of risk is loss of fuel. One immediate result is loss of transport, which means that the movement of goods and people is halted — and consider that the average supermarket might be replenished up to 12 or more times a week. Perishable goods in transit would be at risk and, of course, so would backup power-generation plans, which typically rely on diesel generators. The final category is loss of people, primarily through industrial action and pandemics. Obviously, without people, operations are compromised or even impossible. Each of these losses can affect any company within the supply chain, with knock-on effects of greater or lesser severity. But is it in the budget The case of a local producer of specialty mushrooms to the European market demonstrates some of these interdependences. After listing on the stock exchange and a year’s stellar growth, the company folded. One reason was poor harvesting practices, but the other two concerned loss of power and loss of transport. Loss of power meant that the temperature controls necessary for mushroom growth broke down, and port congestion meant that the perishable product spoiled. Even more to the point is Land Rover which, in the early 2000s found itself unable to produce its best-selling Discovery model because the company that supplied the chassis went broke. The chassis manufacturer’s failure was the result of an ill-advised foreign venture that had nothing to do with its business with Land Rover. Land Rover learned the hard way that the failure of single point of dependency is catastrophic: luckily, there was a happy ending and the company was able to recover. Learn the lessons Your own company’s continuity thus depends on the continuity of the entire supply chain. It’s therefore very important to know your suppliers well, especially those that are important. In fact, I believe that companies should not procure from suppliers without ensuring that an effective and current business continuity plan is in place: “No business continuity plan, no business,” should be phrase on your procurement staff’s lips! In other words, your business continuity plan must include credible business continuity plans for all suppliers as well—their success is your success, but their failure is also your failure. Author •Date: 13th June 2012 • Africa/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
| Copyright 2013 Continuity Central • Privacy and cookie policy • Contact us • Site map |
Sign up for Continuity Briefing REGIONAL PORTALS
|
|||||||||
SUBMIT YOUR NEWS
To submit news stories to Continuity Central,
e-mail the editor.
NEWSFEED
Want an RSS newsfeed for your website? Click
here
