Photo by Shaojie on Unsplash
I recently had the privilege of chairing a Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain (MASC) Project Advisory Board through the Advisory Board Centre exploring the concept of building resilience in the sector.
While the resultant Advisory Board Centre MASC Report identified several points of weakness, the standout for me personally was that a lot of organisations do not have full visibility of the whole supply chain and this is impeded by inadequate digitisation and limited collaboration across the network of supply. But the report did not stop here. The Project Advisory Board tried to provide foresight in terms of practical guidance for what can be done to strengthen these pain points to not only counter future shocks but improve with them.
In a recent McKinsey & Company Report: COVID19 and Supply Chain Recovery: Planning for the Future, they candidly shared that when starting the study, “pandemic” was not listed as a supply chain risk. However, this report raises, what I believe to be, a far more important point and that is that companies will fair better if they focus on their vulnerabilities. Ed Barriball, a partner within the Operations Practice states,
“If you try to predict what the next shock is going to be, you’re probably going to be wrong 99 percent of the time. But you can certainly see where your vulnerabilities are.”
Though I agree in principle with Barriball, the findings from our Project Advisory Board indicate that the sector requires additional support with this, particularly in terms of capability, tools and frameworks and risk management and de-risking. In essence, this means that businesses may not be able to see their own vulnerabilities. What we have seen is "collaboration as the new currency" of COVID19. For example, with Woolworths and Qantas, we witnessed a willingness of businesses in two different industry sectors to collaborate, enabling both companies to ride the storm together.
While hindsight is 20/20, as we enter this new year (2021), my view is that COVID19 can be the catalyst to deliver a contemporary approach to Business Continuity Planning, Resilience, Anti-fragility Planning, and Collaboration, enabling businesses to counter and improve with whatever shocks are yet to come.
Interested in hearing more about building resilience in your supply chain or are you needing help in reviewing, strengthening or developing business continuity plans? Please call directly or visit our website www.onepeople.com.au and complete our online form so that we can discuss what a successful engagement looks like for you and how One People can assist you in reaching your full potential.
Mary is a strategic, collaborative leader and trusted advisor with over 25 years of experience canvassing private, public, and not for profit sectors, working in senior supply chain leadership roles in local, national, and global organisations. As a practitioner and consultant, she is known for her strategic strength which enables her to quickly identify customer pain points and the root causes of the problem to deliver bespoke, cost effective solutions without reinventing the wheel.
Comments