Improving business continuity in the supply chain

Individual companies setting up their own business continuity plans in isolation leave open the possibility of vulnerabilities in the supply chain. If the supply of a key component or product is halted by a vendor hit by a disaster, provision of the end-product or service will immediately grind to a halt. With the increasing complexity and geographic dispersion of supply chains, they are all the more vulnerable to interruption. Accordingly, what is needed is the creation and maintenance of a business continuity plan that encompasses the entire supply chain.

Fujitsu Limited has announced new initiatives to ensure the stable provision of its products and services by strengthening the business continuity capabilities of its suppliers in the event of natural disasters or other incidents.

The new initiatives build on a history of supply chain business continuity management by Fujitsu. In September 2005, Fujitsu established an organization dedicated to promoting BCM. To improve its own business continuity, Fujitsu developed a business continuity plan focusing on critical products and services. Its procurement unit also examined a wide range of issues affecting interactions with suppliers, especially with respect to quality and cost, engaging them in dialogue on these issues and pursuing continuous improvements to optimize procurement. In November 2006, Fujitsu began implementing questionnaire-based surveys of the BCM capabilities of its suppliers.

The company has since made the questionnaires more finely detailed, assessing the level of suppliers' business continuity management capabilities and continuity of supply (disaster response, recovery times, etc.) for critical components. Through these efforts, Fujitsu is now able to gauge at the individual component level how the business continuity capabilities of suppliers would affect the provision of its major products and services. As a result, should incidents happen, it can generate a detailed assessment of the extent of potential impact on the provision of major products and services, and respond more quickly.

Fujitsu new initiatives will provide various types of support to help suppliers shore up their business continuity capabilities. These will include offering information on techniques for developing business continuity plans, information on supply chain assessment methods and models, as well as providing a ‘check-in’ service that enables suppliers to confirm the status of their operations in the event of a disaster or other contingency. Fujitsu plans to offer these forms of assistance over ProcureMART, its EDI service for procurement.

In addition, from the latter half of fiscal 2007, FRI will begin offering to outside clients a ‘Supply Chain Continuity Assessment’ service based on the assessment model developed for use with Fujitsu's suppliers. Leveraging the considerable practical experience of Fujitsu's own procurement unit, this service will include basic assessment of suppliers' business continuity plans; individualized assessment of suppliers' business continuity plans; and supply chain BCM consulting.

www.fujitsu.com

•Date: 22nd August 2007• Region: SE Asia/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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