
1. Executive Summary: The Need for Supply-Chain Risk Management
Modern enterprises increasingly find themselves relying on others for their success. Historically, enterprises have spent
less than a third of their budgets on purchased goods and services, having relied on internal sources for these. Today,
many enterprises spend most of their budget on purchased goods and services. This is in large part because of the
advantages enterprises have found in strategies such as globalization, outsourcing, supply-base rationalization, just-in-
time deliveries, and lean inventories. In addition, many companies have consolidated operations both internally and
externally to achieve economies of scale.
While globalization, extended supply chains, and supplier consolidation offer many benefits in efficiency and
effectiveness, they can also make supply chains more brittle and can increase risks of supply-chain disruption. Historic
and recent events have proven the need to identify and mitigate such risks. The March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and
subsequent tsunami in Japan showed how one event can disrupt many elements of global supply chains, including
supply, distribution, and communications (Lee and Pierson, 2011). In extreme cases, a single event at one location can
severely damage an enterprise or even cause it to leave an industry.
Effective supply-chain risk management (SCRM) is essential to a successful business. It is also a competence and
capability many enterprises have yet to develop. In some areas, both problems and practices are well defined. In
others, problems are defined, but practices are developing. In still other areas, both the definition of the problems and
the practices needed to address them are developing. In sum, SCRM is an evolving field.
In this document, the Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council (SCRLC), a cross-industry council including supply-chain
organizations from more than two dozen world-class manufacturing and services firms and academic institutions,
outlines an approach to SCRM. This document provides a framework for collecting, developing, and implementing best
practices for SCRM. It focuses on
• Identifying internal and external environments
• Risk identification and assessment
• Risk treatment
• Continual monitoring and review of risks and their treatment.
This document is meant to be a practitioner’s guide to SCRM and associated processes. Approaches for identifying,
evaluating, treating, and monitoring supply chain risk will differ across individual enterprises depending on their
industry, the nature of their extended supply chains, and their tolerance for risk (or risk appetite). Therefore, rather
than prescribing a specific approach to SCRM, this document notes some guidelines and possible approaches an
organization may wish to consider, including examples of tools other organizations have used. Specific enterprises will
adapt the concepts included in this document to fit their unique characteristics and expand the depth and breadth of
the processes to meet the requirements of their organizations.
This document excludes risks such as those to brand reputation or intellectual property which exist outside the supply
chain. It seeks to foster the development of best SCRM practices for application in industrial settings rather than
provide a regulatory framework.