Logistics managers get fresh view of risk mitigation

A recent report released by Resilinc, a California-based cloud provider of supply chain resilience and risk management intelligence and analytics, has special relevance for logistics managers evaluating “near-shoring.”

In an exclusive interview with Bindiya Vakil, CEO and founder of Resilinc, it was revealed that in 2016 the majority of supply chain events reported by EventWatch occurred in North America, overtaking Asia, which had the majority of events in 2015.

EventWatch 24X7 is the company’s global event monitoring, alert, and analysis service.

“With all the talk of moving off-shore manufacturing closer to this hemisphere, that’s an important metric to note,” says Vakil. “Even cross-border trade will need to face more scrutiny, given the new political landscape we may be facing agreements with Mexico.”

In regard to automotive and life sciences industries, says Vakil, Mexico is relatively safe, however.

“Also, for the first time, life sciences overtook the automotive industry as the most frequently impacted industry, fueled by an increase in Merger & Acquisition and FDA/EMA Action bulletins,” she says.

Vakil notes that another main takeaway was that M&A represented the majority of EventWatch bulletins in 2016 with 20% of bulletins notified.

“These acquisitions can be very disruptive, as they often mean that the new company will focus on cost cutting and reorganization,” she says. “For many suppliers this can mean a reduction in demand.”

Supply chain risk management practitioners subscribe to the EventWatch service to receive early warnings and analysis of supply chain incidents that can negatively impact revenue, market share, customer satisfaction, and shareholder value.

The annual report analyzed incidents by risk type, industry, geography, severity, and seasonality and compared 2016 data in these categories with 2014 and 2015.