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Supply chain optimisation and performance

Strengthen your supply chain with data-driven risk analysis to minimise costs, prevent delays, and improve resilience.
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Supply chain optimisation is a critical priority

65% of organisations describe their supply chains as “vulnerable to very vulnerable” to future risks, according to Oliver Wyman’s 2025 supply chain risk and resilience survey.

Today’s supply chains face intense pressures from cost inflation, shifting trade policies, climate risks, and volatile demand, making supply chain risk optimisation a critical priority for organisations across industries. 

Supply chain optimisation describes the process of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of a supply chain by strategically managing resources, processes, and information flow. It aims to minimise costs, reduce delays, and improve service levels by aligning supply chain activities with business goals. 

Risks organisations face

>90%

have exposure to a high-risk geopolitical country or an active conflict zone.  

~90%

have more than five suppliers located within a 50 km radius.

65%

have at least one single point of failure hidden in their upstream supply chain. 

*The above statistics are based on data from Marsh’s supply chain risk management tool, Sentrisk.

A high-performing, resilient supply chain goes beyond visibility alone to optimise how you visualise, model, and transfer risk across all layers of your supply chain, down to the site, supplier, and component levels. 

Marsh’s supply chain risk management platform, Sentrisk ™, unites advanced technology, best-in-class supplier data, and deep insurance experience and expertise to: 

  • Provide deep, validated visibility into your upstream suppliers 
  • Reveal critical bottlenecks and concentration risks
  • Enhance your risk mitigation, management, and transfer strategies 
  • Help you develop supply chain resilience 

Align coverage precisely with your risk  

A key feature of Sentrisk is the ability to generate Supplier+ and Snapshot reports to uncover more detailed, validated, and up-to-date supplier data. This enriched data can support: 

  • More detailed, accurate submissions to underwriters 
  • Potentially higher limits for property, contingent business interruption (CBI), and property damage business interruption (PDBI)  
  • Digital preparation of supplier schedules for insurance submissions 
  • More accurate and timely claims processing 
  • Enhanced annual risk reporting and insurance programme reviews

To learn more about how Sentrisk can help you strengthen your insurance outcomes, request a demo.

Why supply chain optimisation depends on robust risk intelligence

Focusing solely on unit cost and lead time often overlooks risks like single-source dependency and geographic concentration, leaving supply chains vulnerable when disruptions occur.

Without visibility into sub-tier suppliers and shared dependencies, forecasting and inventory models rely on incomplete data, which can lead to underperformance during supply interruptions.

The financial impact of unplanned events — such as lost revenue and production downtime — can far exceed savings gained from cost-focused sourcing decisions made without risk context.

Trade policy shifts are now a structural factor in sourcing and network decisions; organisations that fail to model upstream tariff exposure risk making costly, uninformed choices.

Modern supply chains must balance cost competitiveness with demonstrable resilience to meet leadership expectations, environmental and governance requirements, and customer demands — making risk intelligence essential for sustained performance.

selected option

You can’t optimise what you can’t see. Multi-tier visibility is the foundation — building a complete picture of suppliers, sites, sub-tier relationships, and geographic concentrations across the chain.

Sentrisk leverages AI to analyse shipping data, uncovering hidden sub-tier suppliers and shared dependencies often missed by traditional methods. Geospatial intelligence and satellite imaging verify these relationships, identifying geographic risks and single points of failure beyond what data alone can show.

Benefits:

  • A verified, multi-tier supply network map
  • Clear concentration hotspots and single-source dependencies
  • Robust data foundation for risk scoring, scenario planning, and modelling

Request a demo to see a mapped supply chain ecosystem with Sentrisk.

Effective supply chain risk optimisation requires a ranked view of where exposure is highest, so risk mitigation and transfer strategies target the areas with the greatest impact.

Sentrisk provides your organiation with a proprietary risk score, overlaying natural hazard, geopolitical, climate, reputational, and structural risk data to produce a consistent, evidence-based prioritisation of suppliers, sites, components, and products.

Benefits:

  • Ranked list of critical suppliers, sites, and components by risk level
  • Flags for concentration and single-source exposure
  • Prioritised action set for sourcing, inventory, and network design decisions

Use cases:

  • Sourcing optimisation: Rank suppliers by risk-adjusted total value, identifying where slightly higher-cost options offer better resilience.
  • Inventory optimisation: Target safety stock placement and reorder policies to suppliers with highest disruption risk, replacing broad buffer strategies.
  • Dual-sourcing investment: Compare risk scoring with spend and margin data to build a defensible business case for dual-sourcing focused on highest risk exposure.

Request a demo to see the value of risk scoring with Sentrisk.

Risk scoring shows where exposure sits; scenario modelling shows what happens when risks materialise — and what it costs. Together, they let you test optimisation decisions against disruption before locking them in.

Benefits:

  • Quantified what-if impact assessments
  • Ranked scenarios by financial and operational exposure
  • Decision frameworks for sourcing, network, and inventory choices
  • Inputs for insurance optimisation

Use cases:

  • Tariff Simulator and trade policy modelling: Quantify cost impacts of changing trade policies across supply chain tiers and product categories, surfacing hidden upstream tariff exposure.
  • Supplier and site failure scenarios: Understand cascading effects of supplier failures, site closures, or logistics disruptions to identify where buffers or alternatives are needed.
  • Hazard and climate event scenarios: Test network resilience against natural hazards and climate events to inform near-term and long-term design decisions.
  • What-if network design testing: Evaluate alternative footprints — near-shoring, regional diversification, supplier qualification — through a risk and cost lens.
  • Decision triggers and response playbooks: Create pre-agreed triggers and actions to shorten response times and reduce disruption costs.

Request a demo to see scenario modelling in action with Sentrisk.

Case studies 

Explore case studies showcasing how Sentrisk helped organisations strengthen their supply chains and build resilience.

Global semiconductor manufacturer improved PDBI renewal

  • 94 named supplier sites validated
  • 16,000+ Tier 2 and 3 suppliers uncovered
  • Higher CBI coverage secured

Read the full case study

Energy company identifies high-risk supplier dependencies to build resilience with Sentrisk

  • 100% of product lines with exposures identified
  • 73% of Tier 1 sites with concentration risks identified
  • 43% of Tier 1 suppliers with hidden bottlenecks identified

Read the full case study

FAQs

Supply chain optimisation is the process of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of a supply chain by strategically managing resources, processes, and information flow. It aims to minimise costs, reduce delays, and improve service levels by aligning supply chain activities with business goals. Through continuous analysis and improvement, supply chain optimisation helps organisations respond swiftly to market demands and maintain a competitive edge.

Predictive analytics and AI enhance supply chain optimisation by enabling companies to analyse vast amounts of data to identify patterns and potential disruptions, allowing for more accurate forecasting and agile decision-making. Additionally, equipped with more robust supplier data, organisations can achieve better insurance outcomes that align with their true exposures to avoid over-spending.

The primary objectives of supply chain optimisation are to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall service levels across the entire supply chain network. This involves streamlining processes, minimising waste, and ensuring timely delivery of products to meet customer demand. Additionally, supply chain optimisation aims to increase agility and resilience, enabling businesses to quickly adapt to market changes and disruptions.

Real-time alerts serve as critical triggers that immediately notify supply chain teams of disruptions, risks, or deviations from expected performance. By providing timely and actionable information, these alerts enable rapid activation of operational response plans, ensuring swift mitigation of issues before they escalate. This seamless connection enhances agility and resilience, allowing organisations to maintain continuity and optimise supply chain performance under dynamic conditions.

Why Marsh?

As a global leader in risk and insurance, Marsh combines deep experience with cutting-edge technology to help organisations manage complex supply chain risks.  Marsh’s dynamic supply chain risk management platform goes beyond visibility alone to help your organisation make more timely, informed risk mitigation and transfer decisions to enhance resilience planning and align insurance coverage precisely with actual exposures.  

Marsh’s Global Supply Chain Practice, with a dedicated Supply Chain Centre of Excellence, provides specialised guidance and innovative solutions to strengthen supply chain risk management.

Featured insights

Stay informed with the latest insights and podcasts delivering expert guidance on managing today’s supply chain risks. 

Container yard in busy shipping area

Article

Supply chain trends in 2026

27/01/2026
Dump truck at gold mine

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Diversifying and transforming rare earths supply chains

27/11/2025
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A high dose of uncertainty: Navigating pharmaceutical tariffs

20/10/2025
Cargo ship docked

Improving supply chain resilience through actionable insights

06/10/2025

Request a demo

Take control of your supply chain risk with Sentrisk

Does your supply chain risk management function provide deep visibility into all your supplier relationships? Does it have a track record of providing data that can help secure enhanced business interruption coverage?

Many organisations remain vulnerable to risks they didn’t even know they had deep in their supply chain, or do not have robust supplier data to submit more detailed information to underwriters.

Request a Sentrisk demo to learn how you can uncover hidden risks and enhance your coverage.

  • Gain multi-tier supply chain visibility with detailed Supplier+ reports for deeper risk insight
  • Stay ahead of disruptions with real-time alerts and scenario impact analysis
  • Strengthen insurance submissions to secure higher PDBI and CBI coverage limits

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