Building a resilient supply chain has never been more important-or more complex.
While increasingly interconnected global supply chain networks have resulted in significant gains in efficiencies and revenues, they have also broadened the surface area of risks-leaving many companies vulnerable in new and often unexpected ways.
From climate change and natural disasters to economic uncertainty and political unrest, global disruptions costing more than $100 million are at an all time high. And those risks-and impacts-were further compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which laid bare the weaknesses in every industry across the globe. In a March 2020 survey, the Institute for Supply Management found that nearly 75% of companies reported supply disruption in the wake of COVID-19.
As the pandemic rocked the global supply chain, companies found themselves shifting priorities to put resiliency and risk management at the top of their strategic plans.
And it’s no surprise why.
Risk mitigation is no longer optional-it’s essential.
Today, companies are more susceptible to risk than ever before-and the impact can no longer be ignored. While COVID-19 drove home just how vulnerable parts of the supply chain are, other threats have also increased, drawing renewed attention to the long-term importance of risk mitigation strategies.
For example, cyber risk has hit unrivaled frequency and is predicted to continue to increase. Yet only 14% of risk management professionals have confidence that their vendor’s security meets requirements. The threat has been deemed so significant, in fact, that in May 2021, the White House issued an executive order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity, pleading directly with businesses to prioritize cybersecurity.
Anne Neuberger, the cybersecurity adviser at the National Security Council, said, “There has been a significant hike in the frequency and size of ransomware attacks. The threats are serious and they are increasing. We urge you to take these critical steps to protect your organizations and the American public.”
The uptick in recent cyberattacks on American companies, including the Colonial Pipeline hack, has forced companies to rank cybersecurity as a business-critical priority as ransomware attacks specifically aim to disrupt operations.
In addition to cybersecurity threats, businesses face continued disruption to the supply of goods. One of the most notable disruptions is the global chip shortage, which has impacted 169 industries, most notably the automobile and electronic consumer industries. While the pandemic accelerated and revealed supply chain weaknesses in chip manufacturing, signs of shortages existed ahead of the COVID-19 crisis.
Sash Ostojic, ex-VP at NVIDIA, Advisor at Samsung Electronics, and Anari AI explains how limited manufacturing sources and other factors set the supply chain up for eventual disruption:
“The cause is more a reflection of the concentration of semiconductor manufacturing in just a few factories in Taiwan and Korea that has been happening over the past 10+ years. The pandemic exposed and amplified a lot of issues in the global economy that have been building up over a long period of time, such as supply chain constraints, manufacturing concentration, labor shortages, etc.”
Despite early warning signs, businesses across industries found themselves unprepared. And experts estimate the chip shortage will last up to two years.
In the meantime, businesses find themselves forced to limit supply and seek alternative solutions to meet demand while taking steps to mitigate future disruption through innovation, digitalization, and supply chain management.
Current supply chain management tools are falling short.
In order to manage an ever-expanding surface area of risk, companies need robust supply chain management tools that give them unprecedented visibility into their supply chains and responsive analytics and monitoring capabilities.
Yet the majority of businesses are still relying on inadequate solutions:
- 62% have limited visibility into their suppliers.
- 74% say their analytics are insufficient, poor, or not comprehensive.
- 63% of organizations have no tech systems for monitoring supplier performance.
This lack of visibility and supporting management tools leaves organizations vulnerable and forces them to take a reactive, rather than proactive security posture.
What supply chain leaders need
In order to stay ahead of threats and minimize risk across their supply chains, organizations need management tools that provide:
- Validated, reliable external supplier data that contextualizes the risk landscape.
- The ability to compare and benchmark various suppliers side-by-side to aid supplier discovery and diversification.
- Accessible, real-time data and intuitive analytics software that’s easy to navigate.
- Proactive monitoring that alerts of potential and current risks before they become costly or disruptive.
Get accessible, actionable data fast with Craft
Craft’s supplier intelligence platform brings together the capabilities supply chain managers need to pull in deeper, broader, better-validated data that is easily accessible to anyone in your organization.
More data, better supplier intelligence
We start by gathering as much data as we can all in one easy-to-use dashboard. This data comes in structured and unstructured forms from sources like company websites, team pages, job pages, locations, blogs, articles, and reports.
Craft also gathers supplier data through free and licensed platforms, like D&B, xignite, CSRHub, SecurityScorecard, and more. We ensure we are pulling data from all these sources, and then continually validating that data so leaders can take action on that information with confidence.
Organized and accessible information
Craft’s platform makes it easy to access, sort, and use your supplier data by organizing it into key areas, pertinent to supplier risk, so you can gain a holistic view of a supplier, as well as go deeper into target areas.
Plus, the Craft Enterprise Portal is readily accessible to anyone in your company to view and consume this data. Easily search, navigate, export data for additional analysis. Coupled with our customer success team and onboarding tutorial videos, the Enterprise Portal helps users to get up and running in less than two weeks.
Proactive monitoring and alerts
Craft’s comprehensive data foundation allows us to scour the web for any changes that may end up impacting your business, and alert you immediately. Real-time monitoring and alerts ensure you never miss a threat and have the time and tools you need to successfully manage the risk before it becomes a major problem.
Seamless integrations with the tools you already use
If you already have robust frameworks, software, or data analytics capabilities within your organization, the Craft API makes all this data available to you so you can focus on sourcing, analyzing, and evaluating your suppliers more effectively and efficiently than ever before.
Craft’s supplier intelligence solution lays the foundation for better supplier discovery, evaluation, and monitoring. If these pieces aren’t in place, then supplier discovery becomes tedious and laborious and often results in inaccurate, incomplete data. This leads to poor, shallow evaluations that lead to poor supplier choices that end in disruption, poor quality, or negative impact on the business.
Supply chain resiliency is an ongoing challenge, but with the right supplier intelligence platform and risk management tools, you can position your organization for long-term success.