Resilience is the ability to adapt to change and difficult environments. A resilient Supply Chain is important for organizations, as it allows them to have greater resistance to risks and recover quickly from interruptions or gaps that may arise. However, 60% of leaders admit that their Supply Chains were designed for cost efficiency, not resilience (Gartner figures).
Strategies to achieve a resilient Supply Chain
1. Have a diverse network of suppliers
Having a wide network of suppliers allows us to mitigate risk in the Supply Chain as it allows us to have a wide range of alternatives to deal with interruptions and guarantee business continuity. For this, detailed information about the supplier must be available, as well as transparency and visibility of each stage of the Chain.
2. Promote national production
Due to the impact of COVID-19, situations have been generated such as the container crisis that has affected the supply of raw materials and essential supplies for organizations. Therefore, one measure is to promote national production. In this way, geographical dependency is reduced and production times are shortened. Although local or regional supply chains may be more expensive, they allow for more control over inventories and production, reducing the risk of interruptions.
3. Digitization of processes
It is important to have a synchronized Supply Chain. To achieve this, digital solutions are strategic allies as they allow key actors to have key information in real time to make faster and more proactive decisions.
4. Proactive vulnerability management
One of the key steps is to identify possible vulnerabilities in the Supply Chain as this can have an impact on operations and processes. Some of the most common that can occur are: lack of transparency and traceability of the Chain phases, dependence on certain suppliers, not having the processes completely digitized or not using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or Analytics.
By identifying them, measures can be taken to mitigate potential risks and increase the resilience of the Supply Chain.
