Can a goldfish disrupt your day and your supply chain

Supply chains are defined processes undertaken to produce a service or product with a focus on quality and safety — for the product and the processes being undertaken. Intrinsically all processes are dependent on a corresponding and trackable data supply chain. Disruption comes in many forms and mostly by surprise.

There is generally a purpose for all action so when there is a disrupted process there is always a consequence or a downstream impact, ultimately delivering additional cost and emotional disappointment for all participating stakeholders including the consumer.

Software innovators are constantly working on improving predictability so we can avoid disruption. That would seem an obvious goal but even if we can improve early warning systems, avoiding inevitable disruption requires 100% predictability and satisfying a bunch of other variables. The reality is we know we will experience a disruption; we just don’t know the type or the source, and we don’t know when. Inevitably the source of a disruption starts well outside our environment, and by a third-party event whose consequences ripple out to impact thousands of downstream events and outputs, including yours.

There are only four categories for all and any events of disruption.
1. NATURAL DISASTERS
2. HUMAN NEGLIGENCE
3. MALICIOUS INTENT
4. CYBER CRIME

There is a constant investment in building software that can provide foresight into the probability of these events, but seemingly we are always surprised when it happens. Being prepared is never a bad thing and we should make use of these interventions as they apply to our business and circumstance.

Surprisingly though, there seems less investment in helping companies deal with the consequence of a disruption. It seems as if there is a reluctance to accept daily or less frequent catastrophic events will impact our own ability to continue business without financial or reputational risk. Being prepared and frequently tested for business continuity should be a regulated pre-requisite. Testing business continuity in a macro or microenvironment would smooth out the ripple effect on a supply chain, saving significant delays and costs. Third party suppliers (the supply chain) are strategic partners in the execution of any output and must therefore always be included in a business continuity plan. Often left out are the Nth party providers who are serving your third parties. They may have unauthorised access to your data or systems. These forgotten links in your supply chain can be the source of disruption, but also the answer to a recovery plan. Before investing in avoiding disruption, and before investing in third party risk management and supply chain solutions, make sure you identify and include your end-to-end supply chain service providers and vendors. Only when you are confident you have visibility of everyone touching your data regardless of what part they play in a supply chain, will you be able to plan for and prove the resilience required to maintain business continuity.

Whether its a dead goldfish needing to be cleared up before your 5 year old wakes up, or a delayed container of components stuck on a ship behind another blocking the Suez canal, be mindful of the ripple effect, and better yet know who in your supply chain is going to be part of your remedy to get beyond the disruption.

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