I agree with Steve’s comments and I’d like to suggest that organisations first need to understand where the risks lie in their supply-chain. It’s a common mistake to believe that the most critical suppliers are well managed, but this is not always the case.
There is a common issue around the management of smaller (SME) suppliers across sectors, particularly in light of the current economic conditions, where these suppliers are the most vulnerable to adverse trading conditions.
How should organisations best address these issues?
First and foremost, any solution must provide visibility across the entire supply chain of potential risks. Secondly the solution should put in place appropriate measures to pro-actively manage these risks. Typically this would involve collecting more detailed information on a systematic basis for higher risk suppliers and auditing the most critical suppliers; it MUST also ensure a base level of information is collected and maintained for the smaller suppliers, often perceived as less critical.
