@Risk

The counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals is growing in both scope and impact, and now manufacturers and regulators alike are searching for more sophisticated traceability systems.

One “breakthrough approach” currently in development will allow manufacturers to label their products with a two-dimensional dot-matrix that is linked to an online database. GB Innomech, the company developing the new coding system, says this new approach is low-cost and effective: (more…)

Last month, federal officials cracked down on West Coast shop owners who allegedly sell counterfeit merchandise.

In one of the largest federal enforcement actions ever taken against West Coast retailers suspected of selling counterfeit designer apparel and accessories, the authorities seized approximately $100 million worth of counterfeit merchandise and charged the owners, operators and employees of eight shops in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf district with a 25-count indictment.

According to a press release, the designer fakes, which were illegally imported from China, included clothing, handbags and wallets, jewelry and watches, scarves, sunglasses and shoes –all bearing the labels of more than 70 well-known designer brands. Among the brands were a number of US-based companies like Oakley, Dooney and Bourke, Nike, Coach and Kate Spade, and foreign designers such as Armani, Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton. Affidavits filed in connection with the case describe multiple instances where clerks at the targeted stores acknowledged to ICE undercover agents posing as customers that the merchandise they were buying was counterfeit. (more…)

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…)

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…)