Resilience brings significant benefits
While many buyers view resilience as a purely defensive strategy to secure and stabilize supply, a resilient supply chain can also bring significant competitive advantages:
- Risk reduction: with a resilient supply chain, companies are better prepared for unforeseen events such as natural disasters, political instability, raw material shortages or supplier insolvencies. Reduced vulnerability to risk leads to greater business continuity.
- Adaptability: Companies with a resilient supply chain can respond more quickly to market changes and guarantee uninterrupted supply to their customers, even in the face of disruptions in certain parts of the supply chain.
- Cost reduction: efficient planning and resource allocation enable companies to use resources effectively.
A resiliently designed supply chain can compensate for unexpected events and crisis situations because there is usually more than one supplier available for a product and because alternate proven means of transportation can be used if necessary. Supply chain resilience also means that warehouses are set up in a cost-optimal way by always having adequate stock on hand and by distributing individual commodity groups appropriately across different locations. These solutions can be leveraged during times of positive economic activity to accelerate growth and expansion.
We have developed a framework to analyze and optimize the resilience of your supply chains.
Framework: Resilience in the Supply Chain
We distinguish between immediate crisis response and sustainable restructuring for greater resilience in supply chains.
For immediate response, we include:
- Establishing transparency in the supply chain
- Identifying and assessing risks
- Developing predefined processes for crisis response.
Sustainable further development of the organization entails:
- Further development of the Operating Model
- Implementation of data-based warehouse management
- Development of resilience-focused supplier management
- Data-based mapping of the complete supplier network, identification of risks and countermeasures
Further Supply Chain Resilience topics
Risk management
By taking an active role in responding to crises, we support our customers more effectively. That’s both in establishing their proactive risk management after the acute phase or – depending on requirements – in further developing it.
Reshoring and Nearshoring
Identifying and qualifying regional partners can be an important step in making supply chains resilient. We work alongside our clients to assess the availability of suitable suppliers within a defined radius, as part of reshoring and nearshoring initiatives. Moreover, we also provide support in approaching them, negotiating with them and integrating them into the supply network.
Working Capital management
Optimizing working capital is crucial at the moment. High interest rates are causing cash flow strain and elevated post-pandemic inventory levels are affecting liquidity.
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