Supply Chain - Contingency Planning

Each year there are several high profile incidents affecting logistics operations, in some cases resulting in loss of facilities and serious impact to customer service. Significant business risks include loss of IT systems or facilities due to fire, flood damage, industrial action or terrorism. Any such loss can have a crippling impact on operations.

A risk assessment is an excellent method of starting to identify and mitigate the risks being faced by a business. Focus needs to be given to events that are more likely to occur and which will have a critical effect on the business.

Once risks are understood contingency planning is required to alleviate them. This will vary from case to case. Whilst the concept of a secondary standby warehouse will not be cost effective, a plan to secure additional space quickly should be in place. Contingency plans should also be established to react to IT systems failure, such as hardware backup or manual processes.

Total Logistics offers a range of contingency planning and risk management services to help its clients ensure business continuity.

Total Logistics provides practical strategic supply chain consultancy across all industry sectors throughout Europe and the rest of the world. For more information contact us on +44 (0)118 977 3027, or send an e-mail to info@total-logistics.eu.com.

← Back to Information

This Supply Chain glossary article was last updated on 29th November 2007