As the global supply chain continues to seek stability post-pandemic, outdated ideas about how to practise effective supply chain risk management are unfortunately still widespread. In fact, the non-stop chaos of the pandemic era only reinforced past tendencies by organisations when it comes to managing their international supply chains. Caught in a cycle of one emergency after another, scrambling to cope with allocations, leaping into crisis mode when shortages or delays loom, and spending wildly to procure quickly from alternate sources and expedite freight. While this practice is highly commonplace (particularly over the past two and a half years) it’s also extremely counter-productive and should not be considered a long-term solution when it comes to managing supply chain risk.
As organisations look to build more robust supply chain risk management programmes in a post-pandemic world, it’s important to understand what to be aware of and what common mistakes to avoid. During the past twenty years of helping companies navigate supply chain disruptions to protect continuity of supply, here are the top five mistakes I often see organisations make when it comes to supply chain risk management (and how to remedy them):
