Today's economic crisis brings new opportunities for supply management professionals to demonstrate their value and develop new approaches to managing risk. As a result, cutting-edge new tools and processes, such as mitigation mapping and supply base profiling, are making their way into the profession. These tools help proactively identify and manage risk, changing the way supply professionals protect supply lines.
Many organizations have implemented financial risk monitoring for their critical suppliers, but numerous other factors can also lead to a disruption in supply. Today, we face new complexities - such as changes in regulations, enhanced security measures, protection of intellectual property, and geography and modal limitations, among others. As supply management becomes more complex and supply professionals become more involved in C-suite issues, we may miss some potential problems before they occur if we do not take the time to map and assess potential risks.
