@Risk

Today’s supply chains are global, elongated and enormously complex.

Of course, that also means they’re riskier and more unpredictable than ever before.

How can supply chain managers maintain integrity, stability and clarity in what can easily become a nasty hornet’s nest? And now that many suppliers feel far-removed from their customers, how can you mitigate the risk of irresponsible suppliers –you know, the ones that put their own interests above yours?

Answers to questions like those are almost as complex as supply chains themselves, but Mark Vandenbosch and Stephen Sapp do a nice job breaking down the key issues in their article, Keep Your Suppliers Honest, published last week in The Wall Street Journal. According to the authors, mitigating risks from irresponsible suppliers boils down to four fundamental tasks.

In short, you need to: (more…)

Mexico continues to be a positive business proposition for many companies. However there’s no doubt that it is becoming increasingly more challenging –and more costly –to mitigate risks to operations, supply chains and personnel there.

Consider this: Since 2006, more than 24,000 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico, and as an article in The Dallas Morning News puts it: (more…)

Counterfeiters continue to infiltrate the global pharmaceutical supply chain, and increasingly now thay appear to be targeting high-value drugs, such as HIV antivirals and cancer treatments, according to FiercePharmaManufacturing.

In fact, in Germany, dozens of pharmacies are currently under investigation for suspected distribution of illegal and fake drugs, including painkillers, antibiotics and cancer treatments, as well as so-called “lifestyle medicines,” such as impotency drugs and bodybuilding products. This high-profile case seems especially troubling because, among other things, the pharmacists are alleged to have mixed illegally-acquired medicines with genuine product. (more…)

The food supplies of Afghanistan and nine African states are those most at risk and vulnerable to rising costs, based on results of the Food Security Risk Index 2010, released last week by Maplecroft.

The Index uses 12 criteria developed in collaboration with the World Food Programme to evaluate risks to the supply of basic food staples for 163 countries. These criteria include: the nutritional and health status of populations, cereal production and imports, GDP per capita, natural disasters, conflict, and the effectiveness of government.

Following these calculations, Maplecroft rated Afghanistan as least secure in food supplies, while also ranking the African nations of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2), Burundi (3), Eritrea (4), Sudan (5), Ethiopia (6), Angola (7), Liberia (8), Chad (9) and Zimbabwe (10) as “extreme risk.” In all, African nations make up 36 of the 50 nations most at risk in the index. (more…)

Global trade activity held steady in July –and that’s certainly good news. But does a “holding steady” trend like this signal a robust recovery? Panjiva doesn’t think so.

The latest report from Panjiva shows that last month there was a 0.2 percent increase in the number of global manufacturers shipping to the US market, and a 0.5 percent increase in the number of US companies receiving waterborne shipments from global manufacturers. In addition, Panjiva found that: (more…)