From The Archives 2: Mitigating Risk in the Global Supply Chain and The Impacts of Big Data on the Supply Chain

We’re continuing with part 2 of our “From the Archives” series. We are going back in time and exploring the Flash Global archives to bring you valuable insights which are still relevant to our industry today.

We looked at 4 Key Areas for Managing Supply Chain Risk in the Global Supply Chain because of increasing customer demand and competitive pressures. The four areas we assessed include:

Comprehensive Management Strategies needed to Decrease the Kinks in the Supply Chain
Compliance to Local Laws in Geographic Areas of Uncertainty to Decrease Lead Times
The Categorization of Supply Chain Risk Strategies: Atomistic/Holistic & Qualitative/Quantitative
Supply Chain Risk Mitigation Requires Talent, Expertise, Speed to Market & Attention to Detail

A large part of mitigating risk is understanding these increased risks as part of a cross-functional global marketplace where an event in any part of the world can have drastic effects across your entire supply chain.

In today’s global marketplace, logistics managers grapple with risk, volatility and uncertainty on a daily basis. Major disruptions along the supply chain can result from natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, flood and tornadoes, or they can result from labor disputes such as the recent lengthy longshoreman’s union strike along the entire west coast of the United States. While logistics managers should take a proactive approach to mitigate future disruptions, many companies lack a formal process and resources for analyzing and minimizing risk. We brought these issue forward as we discussed mitigating global supply chain risk through in-country services.

Switching gears to big data and it’s usage, we took a deep dive at the impact of big data on the data supply chain. The data industry is in the midst of a revolution, and the large quantity of data continues to experience explosive growth, generating an entirely new industry of big data analytics. This revolution presents both opportunities and threats for information-reliant companies, who must find methods to identify and exploit new sources of value, take better financial and credit risks, create viable services and products and spot trends more quickly.

We’re continuously publishing new blog posts as we continue to discuss issues in the supply chain, logistics, trade compliance, and high tech industries. Thanks for reading and be sure to come say hello on Twitter and LinkedIn.