Risk Solutions International LLC: Retail & Apparel

The operating environment in retail and apparel has never been more robust as it relates to business continuity management practices. Supply chain disruptions can happen for many reasons – from natural disasters and vendor/distribution failures to dock strikes and border/importing issues. Your supply chain, vendors and clients have set a higher standard for operational resiliency at your organization and mandate that your senior management be involved strategically and tactically in the event of disruptions. Incidents of supply chain tampering – diversion, transshipment, grey goods, counterfeiting, and supply chin “shrinkage” – are growing as sourcing moves into less developed countries and longstanding quota protocols are eliminated.

Your business partners have been asking you about your state of readiness. Your service level agreements with customers contractually obligate you to address it. You should have comfort that when you say to your customers “We’ll be there for you” that you can deliver on that promise.

Increased regulatory attention from Homeland Security and U.S. Customs
Interdependence between technology and operations for tracking “order to cash”
Geographic concentration of facilities
International outsourcing
Business partner service level agreements require business continuity and include a “right to audit” those plans
Diversion, trans-shipping, counterfeiting, “grey” goods and supply chain “shrinkage” significantly impact globally-stretched supply chains
Requirements by leading retailers for third party certification of the resilience of your operations as a supplier
Single and sole source supplier dependency

Is your supply chain stretched internationally from developing countries to the US?
Does you have a history of business outages/disruptions or have you recently suffered a publicized disruption?
Do you rely on business partners and other third parties in delivering products and services to market?
Have you mandated to your key suppliers independent Business Continuity Program Assessments to ensure that your shelves are fully stocked?
Have there been recent changes to your organizational structure (mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs)?
Have you experienced supply chain tampering (diversion, grey goods, counterfeiting, transshipment or supply chain shrinkage)?

Our consultants provided business continuity planning services for the primary production and distribution facility of a leading provider of apparel finished goods. We conducted a thorough Business Impact Analysis of the facility’s operations and identified single points of failure and recovery gaps. We proposed solutions that included shifting production to internal and external facilities, production discontinuation, production outsourcing, reduced order sizes and increased inventories. We documented the strategies in their BCP, developed an incident management model and put into place policies and procedures to update the plan as necessary. Their organization is fully prepared to respond to the many inquiries they have been receiving from their stores about the state of their supply chain and distribution preparedness.

For additional information on Risk Solutions International’s capabilities within the Retail and Apparel sectors, please contact Scott A. Corzine at SCorzine@rsi-llc.com.