Yearly Archives: 2008

How to secure your supply chain – 5/7

Previously, I portrayed the different categories of buyer-supplier relationships, and how they influence supply chain disruptions. Today I will look at sourcing strategies and how to or may how not to source: double sourcing, dual sourcing, parallel sourcing, säkra företagets flöden, see-saw sourcing, single sourcing

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How to secure your supply chain – 4/7

My previous post was part three of a series based on the Swedish business continuity handbook titled “Säkra företagets flöden” and looked at a checklist or questionnaire that can be used in assessing particular disruption risks in your suppliers or sub-contractors. Today’s post will deal with different buyer- supplier relationships and how they can be categorized, and how such relationships may or may not contribute to supply chain disruptions.

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Norwegian roads are slooooow…

Comparing average speed on roads in 13 countries, it turns out that travelling in central Europe is several times much faster than in Norway. Norwegian roads are sub-standard compared to much of Europe. Anyone who has ever been to Norway will agree.

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How to secure your supply chain – 3/7

Today’s post is part three of my continuing journey through the Swedish handbook titled “Säkra företagets flöden” or”Secure the company’s flows”, as I have translated it. This part takes a look at a checklist or questionnaire that can be used in assessing disruptions risks in your suppliers or sub-contractors. The following checklist is not meant to be exhaustive, but serves as a gateway or teaser towards asking more in-depth questions

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How to secure your supply chain – 2/7

Continuing my previous post, which talked about raising the awareness towards disruption risks in general, today’s post will take a closer look at how to analyze your suppliers for potential disruption risks, and what questions that need to be asked to gain more insight into your supply chain. In essence, this post will provide some starting points for supply chain risk analysis.

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How to secure your supply chain – 1/7

This the first post in a series that reviews and translates into English some of the content in the book “Säkra företagets flöden” or “Secure the company’s flows” as I have translated it. The book was published in 1999 by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency and is a handbook in Business Continuity Management and Supply Chain Risk Management.

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How to secure your supply chain

“Secure the company’s flows” or “Säkra företagets flöden” in the original Swedish language is the title of a handbook published in 1999 by the Swedish Emergency Management Agency, the Swedish eqivalent to FEMA in the USA. Although 10 years hold, much of this handbook still holds true.

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Airports – vital to supply chains?

Is the temporary shut-down of Bangkok’s two international airports important in a supply chain perspective? So far, the issue has been stranded tourists, maybe as many as 100000. Not only that, air freight will also be impacted, but why is this important?

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Practical Supply Chain Risk Management

Supply chain trends such as offshore manufacturing, global outsourcing and lean sourcing continue to impact the supply chain and supply chain risk management has taken center stage as a vital risk management priority.

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Supply chain disruptions by pirates

Yesterday I cited the press release of the Norwegian shipping company Odfjell, which no longer will send their tankers through the Suez Canal, but take the long route around Africa instead, hoping to avoid being hijacked by pirates. Maybe just in the nick of time.

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Somali pirates forcing ships to make detour

Shipping companies are now seriously considering avoiding the Suez Canal and take the long route around Africa instead. One Norwegian shipping company, Odfjell, has already started sending their tankers on the long route.

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Thanks to Somali pirates no Santa is coming this year?

Shipping companies are now seriously considering avoiding the Suez Canal and take the long route around Africa instead. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports that such move could endanger this year’s Christmas, with presumed presents not arriving on time to be sold from stores.

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Business Intelligence – a key element in Supply Chain Risk Management

In my postings on supply chain risk and supply chain disruption, there is one thing that I have overlooked: Business Intelligence. Well, not overlooked, maybe, but underestimated, because Business Intelligence is a key component in mitigating supply chain risk and also a key component in recovering critical information after a supply chain disruption.

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TRB 2009 – are you going there, too?

Are you presenting at the TRB 2009, the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting? Below is the abstract of a paper I will present at TRB2009, the Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting, in Washington, DC, 11-15 January 2009.

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The Supply Chain Network Project

Do you want to keep in touch with all aspects of the global supply chain network? SCN is a network of people, a network of ideas and information, a means for designing, building, improving and managing your physical network and a source for services to facilitate your network.

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Risk – the dark side of supply chain management

“Supply Chain Risk – the dark side of supply chain management” is a guest lecture I recently gave at Molde University College in Molde, Norway. Hopefully it can be of use to both students at practioners alike.

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Conferences in Transportation and Supply Chain

Looking for a list of conferences in supply chain and transportation-related topics? By accident, I came across this list on a website called interorganisational.org. Not only does it feature calls for papers for conferences, but also calls for papers for academic journals, complete with abstract or paper submission deadline.

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Sparse transportation networks – a nightmare

Sparse transportation networks, like in Norway, are a recipe for supply chain disruptions. Furthermore, unlike in regions with a dense transportation network, supply chain management in a sparse network setting comes close to being business continuity management.

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A Future Research Agenda for Supply Chain Risk

When Manuj and Mentzer (2008) wrote their article titled Global Supply Chain Risk Management, they used Ghoshal (1987) Global Strategy: An Organizing Framework for developing sources of risk and Jüttner, Peck and Christopher (2003) Supply Chain Risk Management: Outlining an Agenda for Future Research for developing risk mitigation strategies.

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Strategies for managing risk in multinational corporations

In my post two days ago, reviewing the article by Manuj and Mentzer (2008) titled Global Supply Chain Risk Management, I mentioned that they cited a paper by Ghoshal (1987) titled Global Strategy: An Organizing Framework as one of their references for listing risk management strategies. Today, I will take a closer look at that paper.

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ARTICLES and PAPERS
Managing risk in global supply chains
The book Strategies for Building Successful Global Businesses, by the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance on Glo[...]
Strategies for managing risk in multinational corporations
In my post two days ago, reviewing the article by Manuj and Mentzer (2008) titled Global Supply Chai[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Book Review: Supply Chain Risk
This book, Supply Chain Risk, is from 2004 and edited by Clare Brindley of the Manchester Metropolit[...]
Risk Management in Global Supply Chain Networks
Supply Chain Risks can be classified as either one of these three, Deviation, Disruption or Disaster[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Vulnerable or valuable supply chain?
More than a year old now, but still holding not so few words of wisdom is the Pricewaterhouse Cooper[...]
Stemming the rising tide
Are you are taking radically different actions than your peers when it comes to supply chain risk ma[...]
from HERE and THERE
ERDAS tutorial
About the tutorial This tutorial is taken from my coursework for the MSc in GIS at the University o[...]
Near-shoring - less risk?
You Can’t Understand China’s Slowdown Without Understanding Supply Chains. That's the title of a rec[...]