Introduction:

Previously I have introduced Supply Chain Risk Management in 5 Questions (link here). The aim here is to highlight elements of supply chain Risk, Reliability, Resilience and Futureproofing

What does Supply Chain Reliability & Resilience mean?

Supply Chain Reliability is where your supplier or service provider can repeatedly satisfy your purchase requirements. Resilience in very basic terms is how quickly your business can respond to and recover situations or issues (Risks) to the last good part, state, or improved condition, that otherwise could have a real or potential impact on your business operations

Reliability and Resilience both reflect how robust your supply chain is, or could be

Internal – External Supply Chain Focus

The first step in achieving better Reliability and more Resilience is to understand what you want from your supply chain, both Internally and Externally. Internally, how do your suppliers manage and control their Assets, Information Security, and Capacity for example. Externally, how do your suppliers manage their supply chain, i.e., People, Delivery, Reputation, Legal Requirements etc.

Plan – Do – Check – Act

PDCA speaks for itself. Get this right in terms of your objectives (P), confirming your baseline (D), setting your controls (C), and managing your processes (A), then you will be in a clear position to baseline your supplier competencies (Reliability), and identify and manage those Risks that may or will impact you (Resilience)

Supplier Competencies

The key to this element is how well do your suppliers manage their / your processes?. Are they doing what they say they are doing? Are they managing and controlling what they are doing? Is it visible? Is it to your requirement and satisfaction? Some key areas of competency measure: Financial Performance / Materials / Asset reliability / Reputation / Information Security / Industrial Compliance (i.e., Def Stan 05-135) / Legal Requirements / Sub-Tier Performance etc..