Supply chain complexity among top risks in 2008
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/9/2008 7:13:00 PM
“Companies face a gamut of risks heading into 2008. Some are within their control, some not,” Boston-based AMR Research asserts in a First Monday report issued late last year. Making the cut on a short list of prime concerns is supply chain complexity.
“There is a huge amount of complexity today in supply chains as companies struggle to balance all the tradeoffs between achieving ‘the perfect order’ and total supply chain costs,” says Jane Barrett, research director of value chain strategies for AMR.
Consumer backlash from all the choices, "creaky" infrastructures, and rising raw material costs are key contributing risk factors. Risk frameworks, scenario modeling tools, hedging strategies—e.g. for fuel and alternative ports—and rightshoring to balance overreliance on long-distance offshore sourcing are viable strategies to consider, says AMR.
