The Supply Chain Engineers

Miebach Study: Crisis Winner Supply Chain Risk Management on the Rise

In the last three years, companies and their supply chains have been confronted with extreme challenges and previously unknown situations due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the outbreak of the Ukraine war, and climate change-related natural disasters, among other things. In the face of these globally impactful risk outbreaks, the importance of the topic of supply chain risk management is growing and has now become a top priority for 58% of the companies. This is just one of the findings resulting from Miebach Consulting's second edition of the global market survey on the relevance and success factors of supply chain risk management with nearly 300 participating companies. Other findings of the study are: “Supply chains are 40% more likely to be affected by disruptions than in 2019, and the disruptions that do occur result in more dramatic impacts. Accordingly, the demands for risk mitigation, flexibility, and resilience in supply chains are increasing. This is where supply chain risk management can make an important contribution,” says Tim Wagner, Consultant at Miebach. Depending on the severity of the disruption, participating companies experienced financial losses averaging between 0.6% to a peak of 4% of annual sales last year. The most common consequences of the disruptions included delivery delays, blocked delivery routes, and rising transport costs. About 50% of respondents with supply chain risk management in place were able to mitigate the impact of the top risks. In doing so, 68% of companies were able to bypass blocked supply routes, thereby maintaining their procurement or distribution flows and minimizing the impact. The negative effects of delivery delays were reduced by as many as 80% of companies. 94% of companies have established a process for supply chain risk management, but fewer than one in five include the entire supply chain in the process. Low system-side support (51% without a system) ensures that the benefits of a supply chain risk management process are not fully realized. Three-quarters of respondents want to continue investing in supply chain risk management in the future. The focus is on optimizing the process as a whole. In strengthening resilience, companies are focusing on redundancies in inventory or procurement (dual/multi-sourcing) in the short term - structural changes in the supply chain are planned for the long term, such as nearshoring. “If the past few years have taught one thing, it is that supply chain risk management is essential for companies to navigate safely through difficult times and secure competitive advantages in the long term,” sums up Daniel Simon, Senior Consultant, Miebach Consulting. The complete results of the report can be requested free of charge under this link or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (hoffmann@miebach.com).