Building Resilience in Your Global Supply Chain

Building Resilience in Your Global Supply Chain

If your company has a business continuity plan in place in the event of a supply chain disruption, you are not alone. Nearly 75 percent of organizations responding to a report published by the Business Continuity Institute and supported by Zurich Insurance Group have made business continuity arrangements related to supply chain management.

Companies that have business continuity arrangements in place are eight times more likely to report greater supply chain visibility, twice more likely to insure for supply chain losses, and three times more likely to display top management commitment, according to the report.

While respondents report they turn to technology and big data to overcome skills and resources gaps in supply chain management, the study shows that 63 percent of organizations do not use any technology to analyze, track, and monitor supply chain performance. And while there is an increase in the availability of insurance products against supply chain losses in the market, 51 percent of organizations do not insure against supply chain disruption at all.


Two other important aspects of supply chain resilience are reputation, which requires organizations to become more aware of the issues around their supply chain and communicate effectively in times of crisis, and collaboration, which still faces challenges in being implemented, but represents a great resource for effective supply chain management.

Other findings of the report include:

• The top causes of supply chain disruption are unplanned ICT and telecommunication outages, cyber attacks and data breaches, and loss of talent and/or skills. In 2017, fire showed the biggest increase in supply chain disruptions, jumping from 14th last year to the 7th biggest cause of disruption in 2017. Terrorist acts and currency volatility dropped out of the top 10.

• The top three impacts of supply chain disruptions are loss of productivity (55 percent), increased cost of working (46 percent), and customer complaints.

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