Building resilience in supply chains

This report explores government and industry sector views on systemic supply chain risks and building a resilience framework to manage them. Top supply chain risks identified in the report by corporate and government executives include climate change related risks such as natural disasters and extreme weather conditions, using the effects of Hurricane Sandy as an example.

The report endorses the requirement for a multi-stakeholder risk assessment framework and the need to build agile and adaptable strategies that will improve resilience and protect against a range of global disruptions. It calls for four steps to help integrate resilience thinking into supply chain management: (i) institutionalise a risk assessment process rooted in a broad-based and neutral international body; (ii) mobilise international standards bodies to develop and harmonize the adoption of resilience standards; (iii) incentivise organisations to follow agile, adaptable strategies to improve common resilience; and (iv) expand the use of data-sharing platforms for risk identification and response.