Supply Chain Security Can Make or Break Your Business: Here’s How to Prepare
January 31, 2022
Supply Chain Security and Preparing for Future Disruptions
A business owner’s proactive efforts can go a long way in ensuring long-term supply chain security. Many corporations were caught off guard during the initial lockdowns of 2020, as sudden travel restrictions, port congestion, and complications crossing international borders left many industries scrambling to adjust. As the official end of COVID-19 remains uncertain, now is the time to plan for any other supply chain complications that can delay your flow of work and leave your goods vulnerable to theft.
Global supply chains have had numerous security vulnerabilities due to the pandemic. As precious cargo and other goods have been stalled, criminals have taken steps to intervene with crimes of opportunity and elaborate infiltrations within organizations, key suppliers, and vendors.
The truth is that in order to secure a business’s supply chain, it will require a collaborative effort across every element of a supply chain. The group efforts among multiple partnerships will ultimately lead to great security, reduced losses, and a successful economic rebound.
Key Points to Promote Supply Chain Security and Prepare for Disruption
The first step to securing any supply chain is conducting a comprehensive risk assessment. Compiling all available information alongside specialized third parties can identify potential risks while helping to draft solutions.
Risk assessments can detect issues within your workforce and job site, curb crimes of opportunity, and dig far deeper into each element of your supply chain. Your extra care and preparation will help address issues before they arise and mitigate losses.
Taking Control of Your Jobsite
Reaching out directly to your suppliers and vendors is an important part of understanding the risks throughout the supply chain. Third parties can help identify supply chain security risks outside your immediate visibility. Your collaboration with vendors and suppliers may reveal security vulnerabilities within their workforce or indicate that they have done very little to screen and vet their own employees.
Bad actors have gone to great lengths to gain important information about supply chains that carry precious goods. Your vendors or suppliers might unknowingly expose this critical data to outsiders.
Consider grouping your suppliers into different risk profiles and address pressing matters as soon as possible. Security companies can also help implement access control systems that manage the flow of suppliers and vendors visiting your job site. For instance, maintenance and cleaning staff visiting your job site will need different access, as opposed to suppliers coming to provide essential materials.
Considering Vendor Reliance
Careful pre-planning of your supply chain reliance on certain suppliers can prompt your business to explore other options in the event of a supply chain disruption. Being completely reliant on one supplier to provide key resources or materials is a problematic issue that must be addressed. In the wake of COVID-19, business owners should be looking to make their supply chain as agile as possible, adapting to complications in an instant.
Consider communicating your company’s desire to address vendor reliance and improve security efforts across all aspects of the supply chain. Sharing information is crucial for ongoing supply chain security, and your collaboration can help outline requirements for reporting security incidents. All suppliers and vendors should be certain of each other’s responsibilities during a security incident and be willing to share this information to avoid such incidents.
Workplace Security Services Offered By AFIMAC Global
AFIMAC Global has been an integral part of securing supply chains for a long list of Fortune 500 companies. For 30 years, AFIMAC has provided comprehensive security services that ensure supply chains remain resilient to any risk or disruption. With ongoing risk assessments, access control systems, criminal background check offerings, physical security guards, temporary workforces, and protective drivers, AFIMAC can address any complications related to your workforce and supply chain.
Contact us directly to learn more about available services and begin the process of securing your supply chain today. Fill out the form below to speak with an AFIMAC representative today.
