Business Core · Supply Chain · Module
Resilience
The capacity to keep supplying when something goes wrong — which it will, and rarely in the way that was planned for.
The idea
How it works
Efficiency and resilience trade against each other, and the trade is made continuously whether or not anyone names it. Every buffer removed makes the ordinary case cheaper and the unusual case worse.
Most supply chain risk sits below the first tier, where nobody looks. Several apparently independent suppliers frequently share one input, one facility or one region, and that only becomes visible during the disruption.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Map dependencies past the first tier
Ask suppliers where their critical inputs come from. Shared upstream sources are common and invisible.
- 02
Identify single points of failure
One supplier, one facility, one person, one system. Then decide which are acceptable.
- 03
Name the efficiency trade
Buffers cost money and buy time. Removing them silently is still a decision.
- 04
Practise the response
A continuity plan that has never been run is a document, not a capability.
One level in
The components of resilience
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Apparently independent suppliers often share one upstream source. That only becomes visible during the disruption.
The other modules in supply chain
Sourcing
Deciding where inputs come from and on what terms, including how much concentration the organisation is willing to carry.
LearnLogistics
Moving things from where they are to where they are needed, on time and intact, at a cost that makes sense.
LearnInventory
What is held, where, and why — balancing the cost of holding stock against the cost of not having it.
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