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Supply chain risk in manufacturing

Marsh helps manufacturers understand and identify supply chain exposures and develop strategies to manage risk.
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Supply chain risk management starts with visibility

Today’s complex and interconnected supply chains are vulnerable to multiple issues — including geopolitical conflicts, supplier bottlenecks and concentration risks, climate events, or cyber incidents. Disruption in any part of this network can have immediate and material consequences for manufacturers. But many organizations do not have visibility beyond their immediate suppliers, which makes identifying potential challenges deep within the supply chain difficult.

Effective supply chain risk management starts with visibility. Understanding how suppliers, customers, and locations are connected better enables manufacturers like you to identify critical dependencies, assess potential disruption scenarios, and make more informed decisions to minimize the risk of business interruption, reduced sales, or increased operational costs and instead protect production, revenue, and customer commitments.

Those risks can extend beyond direct suppliers and customers, making supply chain exposures harder to assess. Mapping direct and indirect supply chain dependencies and testing potential disruption scenarios can help you understand where exposures sit and how they could affect operations.

Marsh’s team of supply chain specialists work closely with you to develop risk transfer and management strategies that support supply chain resilience and help address the financial impact of disruption. Our supply chain analytics platform, Sentrisk, enables manufacturers to visualize supply chain networks, identify critical supplier dependencies, and analyze how disruption at specific locations or supplier tiers could affect operations.

Key takeaways

Supply chain visibility and mapping to help manufacturers understand critical dependencies

Scenario planning to assess disruption across supplier and customer networks

Risk transfer strategies to help manage supply chain disruption and build resilience

FAQs

The potential for disruption across suppliers, customers, and other connected stakeholders can affect production, costs, sales, and future revenue streams.

Supply chain disruptions can result from a multitude of events, including supply chain failures, natural disasters, fires, cyberattacks, labor disputes, machinery breakdowns, and other risk events. The impact can vary depending on where the disruption occurs and how critical that part of the supply chain is to operations.

Manufacturers can assess supply chain risk by improving visibility across supplier and customer networks, mapping critical dependencies, and using scenario planning to understand how disruption could affect operations. This can help support more informed risk management and transfer decisions.

Risk advisors can help manufacturers identify critical dependencies, assess potential disruption scenarios, and develop strategies to manage supply chain exposures. They can also support supply chain visibility, mapping, scenario planning, and risk transfer decisions.

Sentrisk uses advanced data-driven analytics and geospatial intelligence to provide visibility into supplier networks and overlay critical risk factors such as geopolitical tensions and natural hazards. This comprehensive view enables organizations to anticipate potential disruptions, take proactive risk management actions, and support more informed insurance decisions. 

Why Marsh

Marsh helps manufacturers build clearer visibility across supply chain exposures and critical dependencies. Our specialists use data-backed insights, supply chain mapping, and scenario planning to help assess how disruption could affect production, sales, and the cost of keeping operations running.

With Marsh’s support, manufacturers can better understand where vulnerabilities sit across their supplier and customer networks, evaluate potential interruption scenarios, and develop strategies to manage supply chain disruption before it affects the wider business.

Contact us

Connect with Marsh’s supply chain specialists to identify hidden dependencies, evaluate disruption scenarios, and strengthen your supply chain resilience.

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