Resilience brings significant benefits
While many buyers view resilience as a purely defensive strategy to secure and stabilize supply, a resilient supply chain can also bring significant competitive advantages:
- Risk reduction: with a resilient supply chain, companies are better prepared for unforeseen events such as natural disasters, political instability, raw material shortages or supplier insolvencies. Reduced vulnerability to risk leads to greater business continuity.
- Adaptability: Companies with a resilient supply chain can respond more quickly to market changes and guarantee uninterrupted supply to their customers, even in the face of disruptions in certain parts of the supply chain.
- Cost reduction: efficient planning and resource allocation enable companies to use resources effectively.
A resiliently designed supply chain can compensate for unexpected events and crisis situations because there is usually more than one supplier available for a product and because alternate proven means of transportation can be used if necessary. Supply chain resilience also means that warehouses are set up in a cost-optimal way by always having adequate stock on hand and by distributing individual commodity groups appropriately across different locations. These solutions can be leveraged during times of positive economic activity to accelerate growth and expansion.
We have developed a framework to analyze and optimize the resilience of your supply chains.
Framework: Resilience in the Supply Chain
We distinguish between immediate crisis response and sustainable restructuring for greater resilience in supply chains.
For immediate response, we include:
- Establishing transparency in the supply chain
- Identifying and assessing risks
- Developing predefined processes for crisis response.
Sustainable further development of the organization entails:
- Further development of the Operating Model
- Implementation of data-based warehouse management
- Development of resilience-focused supplier management
- Data-based mapping of the complete supplier network, identification of risks and countermeasures
Further Supply Chain Resilience topics
Risk management
If we become active in the context of a crisis response, we support our customers in establishing their proactive risk management after the acute phase or – depending on requirements – in further developing it. To do this, we apply our proven four-stage process and set up a digitally supported risk control tower together with the customer.
Reshoring and Nearshoring
To make supply chains resilient, identifying and qualifying regional partners can be an important building block. We work alongside our clients to assess the availability of suitable suppliers within a defined radius as part of reshoring and nearshoring initiatives. Of course, we also provide support in approaching them, negotiating with them and integrating them into the supply network.
Inventory optimization
Determining the optimal position and size of inventories is another crucial element in creating sustainable and resilient supply chains. Typically, it is necessary to gain transparency regarding distribution, quantities, and transportation routes, for which we employ advanced analytics and data visualization.
Get in contact with our experts
Discover our supply chain resilience insights
