How a Supply Chain Assessment can benefit your network

• Supply chain disruption is no longer the exception—it’s the norm. Organizations face growing risks from climate events, geopolitical instability, cybersecurity threats, raw material shortages, and regulatory pressures. As a result, agility, flexibility and resilience have become critical supply chain capabilities.
  

• Most companies are not effectively assessing or managing supply chain risk. Research cited found that no surveyed organizations rated themselves as highly effective at supply chain risk management, and supply chain managers estimate that only about 25% of their end-to-end networks are being assessed for risk.
  
• Data-driven supply chain assessments provide the foundation for resilience. Assessments that analyze shipment-level data, network structure and external risk factors help organizations identify cost-saving opportunities, efficiency improvements, vulnerabilities and actionable mitigation strategies.

Supply chains today are facing significant pressure from environmental, political, technological and regulatory disruptions like never before. One article highlights the top risks and risk score threatening today’s supply chains, including: 

• Climate change and flooding: 90% risk score
• Geopolitical instability: 80% risk score
• Cybersecurity threats: 75% risk score
• Raw metals and materials: 70% risk score
• Forced labor crackdowns: 65% risk score
  

Schneider Supply Chain Management® (SCM) provides superior consulting, visibility and operational excellence to remove risk or minimize exposure if it cannot be avoided. You cannot predict how many Nor’easters may hit your supply chain, but you can ensure proper mitigation and agile recovery.

When a devastating hurricane made landfall in Houston, drastically affecting North American supply chains, a major production plant for one of Schneider’s customers was in the direct path of destruction and became inaccessible for two weeks. This inevitably meant a shift in its production and inventory, changes to routing guides and complex logistical execution. During this crucial time, 25% of this customer’s supply chain network shifted and Schneider Logistics maintained an exceptional on-time pickup and delivery of 95%. Schneider had a deep understanding of the customer’s supply chain to develop robust solutions and execute swift changes in business processes to safeguard service. 

A Supply Chain Assessment is a great starting point to uncover opportunities and diagnose your supply chain’s health. We utilize shipment-level data to dive deeper to understand the structure of a shipper’s network, providing dynamic visualizations to identify:

• Cost-savings opportunities  
• Efficiency improvements
• A roadmap for implementation  
  

To assess risk, we overlay weather-related events to identify potential vulnerabilities and visualize how these risks intersect with the supply chain network. This approach helps us understand:

• Where disruptions are most likely to occur
• How multiple risks can compound nonlinearly
• The strategic implications of these risks
  

As risks increase, so does the likelihood of disruption—often exponentially. That’s why it’s critical to have a data-driven model in place to guide next steps to reduce exposure and minimize cost impact. Ultimately, this leads to the need for network optimization and a resilient supply chain strategy that enables fast, informed decisions when disruption strikes.  

These comprehensive tools help to identify, prioritize and ultimately mitigate risk. But this is not a one-and-done approach. Because supply chains are ever-changing, these areas of vulnerability and quantification of risk should be evaluated on a regular basis. Gartner notes this should include “end-to-end supplier risk as part of the ongoing governance structure and continuous improvement.”

Once risks are prioritized, mitigation strategies can be developed and assessed on an ongoing basis. Common mitigation activities include:

• Evaluation of suppliers and sourcing reviews that aim to swap out weak or risky suppliers with strong suppliers
• Network analysis to shorten shipping time and/or cycle time of products by changing/adding warehouse locations or shipping locations
• Increasing visibility throughout the supply chain by way of analytics, real-time shipment tracking and KPI tracking carrier and supplier compliance 

A Supply Chain Assessment is a great starting point to uncover opportunities and diagnose your supply chains health. We utilize shipment level data to dive deeper to understand the structure of a shippers’ network, providing dynamic visualizations to identify:

• Cost-savings opportunities.  
• Efficiency improvements.
• A roadmap for implementation.  

To assess risk, we overlay weather-related events to identify potential vulnerabilities and visualize how these risks intersect with the supply chain network. This approach helps us understand:

• Where disruptions are most likely to occur.
• How multiple risks can compound non-linearly.
• The strategic implications of these risks.

As risks increase, so does the likelihood of disruption-often exponentially. That’s why it’s critical to have a data-driven model in place to guide next steps to reduce exposure and minimize cost impact. Ultimately, this leads to the need for network optimization and a resilient supply chain strategy that enables fast, informed decisions when disruption strikes.  

These comprehensive tools help to identify, prioritize and ultimately mitigate risk. But this is not a one and done approach. Because supply chains are ever changing, these areas of vulnerability and quantification of risk should be evaluated on a regular basis. Gartner notes this should include “end-to-end supplier risk as part of the ongoing governance structure and continuous improvement.”

Once risks are prioritized, mitigation strategies can be developed and assessed on an ongoing basis. Common mitigation activities include:

• Evaluation of suppliers and sourcing reviews that aim to swap out weak or risky suppliers with strong suppliers.
• Network analysis to shorten shipping time and/or cycle time of products by changing/adding warehouse locations or shipping locations.
• Increasing visibility throughout the supply chain by way of analytics, real-time shipment tracking and score carding carrier and supplier compliance.