IndustryWeek Manufacturing Business Challenge

All companies should be refocusing on supplier financial audits, if they haven’t already done so. It is important to re-audit all your suppliers at a base level (e.g., credit ratings and basic financial information) and more deeply investigate higher-risk suppliers or those that provide critical materials that would be difficult to replace. Suppliers that are a sole source of materials or components should receive extra scrutiny; consider adding additional suppliers to minimize the chance for disruption...

...Establishing and then proactively promoting your risk processes can make the difference in gaining or expanding business with a customer, especially as companies seek to protect themselves from the current market volatility. In addition, Standard & Poor’s has announced that a company’s risk processes will now be one of the inputs into its credit rating. This means that how well you manage your supply chain risk can now positively impact your company’s cost of capital and access to credit.

-- Beth Enslow