Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience: key strategies from risk to resilience

Global challenges, complex realities

In an increasingly interconnected world, the journey of a product from origin to consumer is often taken for granted. Yet, this journey, navigating through a complex web of suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors, is often fraught with hidden vulnerabilities.

Global challenges and complexities are here to stay. Cross-border health emergencies, geopolitical instability, and climate change are just some of the major threats to supply chains. At the same time, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements are putting pressure on companies to build more resilient and sustainable supply chains.

Enablers of supply chain resilience

Our supply chain story focuses on better understanding the risks in your product journey, enabling strategic and informed investments in risk mitigation and resilience that cultivate a more responsive ecosystem. 

As seen in our story, supply chains are made more resilient by increasing and enhancing transparency, communication, and cross-functional collaboration. These principles are promoted through strategic and targeted activities including:

1. Proactive risk management: Resilient supply chains require proactive risk management, built on transparency and open communication throughout. Data-driven tools and stakeholder engagement enable real-time risk identification, assessment, and monitoring. This allows for faster, informed decisions, proactive mitigation, and swift responses to emerging threats.
2. Pre-emptive alternative solutions: A core component of supply chain resilience is being able to identify known substitutions and alternate delivery methods. Proactively establishing backup suppliers, flexible transport routes and contingency plans minimises impact during disruptions. Collaboration between Procurement, Business Resilience, and Digital Solutions breaks down silos, creating a unified "Plan B" for agile adaptation under pressure.
3. Strategic partnerships with key suppliers: Strong supplier relationships are crucial for supply chain resilience. Open communication fosters trust and alignment on sustainability, risk mitigation, and continuity, enabling collaborative problem-solving and joint planning for a resilient and sustainable supply chain.

Evolving global supply chain risks and vulnerabilities demonstrate that resilience and sustainability are not end states, but rather ongoing processes of adaptation and improvement. By embracing transparency, fostering collaboration, and aligning strategy with action, organisations can navigate the complexities of global trade and build more resilient and responsible supply chains for the future.

Authors:

Katie Khadhouri, Grace Kingsbury, Zera Zheng, Global Head of Business Resilience, Maersk