As I am writing this, in mid-2022, we're living in pretty unprecedented times. The Covid pandemic is ongoing, tensions between major world powers are at a high, previously solid supply chains and business practices are crumbling, inflation … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Analysis: Learn from Past Issues
I have written a number of posts over the past couple of years about supply chain risk management. This one is a short addition to the series. As I wrote before, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (collectively called … [Read more...]
How Does Mexico Compare To China As A Manufacturing Base? [Podcast]
![How Does Mexico Compare To China As A Manufacturing Base? [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/HowDoesMexicoCompareToChinaAsAManufacturingBasePodcast-1140x445.jpeg)
In this episode… Dan Harris from China Law Blog recently wrote: "Mexico is the New China" and Manufacturers are Moving There. Renaud Anjoran and Adrian from the team explore the topic of nearshoring to locations like Mexico, why it may … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management: No, Toyota Doesn’t Always Do Just-In-Time
I ran into a very interesting article from Bloomberg entitled How Toyota Steered Clear of the Chip Shortage Mess. Nearly all automakers announced that they would have to cut their production numbers due to a serious shortage of … [Read more...]
Have You Revised your Supply Chain Risk Analysis?
Last year, I wrote about the Business Continuity Plan (BCP). More and more companies request their suppliers to prepare a BCP, as a structured approach to performing a supply chain risk analysis to get prepared for the risks they are … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 5: Moving Manufacturing to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, or India (Pros & Cons)
One of the main conclusions of many companies is as follows: 'diversifying our supply chain outside of China is a must in order to reduce risk'. There are two main reasons for this. First, the USA has been leading the charge against … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 4: How Much Inventory Do You Need?
If you make sure to sit on 6 months of inventory for every one of your major products, you will run much lower risks of being unable to supply your customers with what they need. You might even be able to cut a current manufacturer off and … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 3: A Purchaser Supply Chain KPI Scorecard’s Benefits
Most purchasers pay too much attention to the price of what they buy but fail to take risks into account. That's a very widespread issue. One solution to this might be developing a supply chain KPI scorecard, to force buyers to report on … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 2: The Business Continuity Plan
In this post, let's focus on disaster prevention, and more specifically on the business continuity plan, with a simple example. We will also provide you with a free template. This is the second post in our series of Supply Chain Risk … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 1: What are VUCA and Black Swans?
We seem to be at a pretty low point right now: Billions of people are confined at home. Economists are predicting a disaster and seem to think 2020 will probably be worse than what most of us can remember. The behavior and … [Read more...]