Risk Mitigation Among Supply Chain Trends For 2012
Manhattan Associates, a prestigious group of supply chain professionals known for world-class management solutions, has announced its picks for this year’s industry trends.
Their report stresses the unpredictability of the current market, with natural disasters from Thailand to Australia disrupting the global supply chain. Investors across industries are calling for better risk management, and the firm responded by placing mitigation strategies at the top of their list.
Cost reduction remains a core issue for most businesses, and Manhattan Associates was careful to point out how central this is to the behavior of most companies – especially those of small and middle size.
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For large organizations, however, sophisticated strategies for minimizing the fallout from the unforeseen are seen as critical to maintaining investor confidence. One need only look as far as the recent news of HP’s 44-point drop last quarter to see an example of how one natural disaster can sink a whole supply chain system.
Having safeguards, diversifying holdings, and maintaining the right kind of emergency management infrastructure are all lessons that the big players will have to learn if they want to remain at the top of their game. Supply chain, after all, is the future.
But it’s not all about risk: the future holds the promise of further transparency as well, which is a long-standing goal of supply chain managers not yet satisfactorily achieved.
