SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.40, Q1 2021
Torben Beyhoff, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe: ‘It was difficult to shut down production. Our biggest problem was our rapidly increasing stock levels.’
Carsten Knauer, BME: ‘Many companies do some risk analysis, but it is frag- mented across different departments with no coordination between them.’
accessible to everyone. After all, the virus had a major impact on all supply chains and therefore on society as a whole. We now have a similar dashboard providing information about border crossings to the UK. The problems are not as bad as predicted in the worst-case scenarios, but the fact that a carrier like DB Schenker had to temporarily halt its UK services illustrates that the Brexit process is any- thing but smooth.”
One important step in the adoption of the visibility platform is the company’s close collaborative partnership with the Transporeon freight exchange platform, which means that all shipments booked through the platform can now be tracked through Sixfold. “That amounts to 20 million shipments a year – a lot more than we were doing before,” continues Wörner. “We have a common investor and are working together to expand and improve our product portfolio. We have proved that Sixfold can innovate quickly and introduce new solutions. We’re now combining that with the scale and net- work of Transporeon.”
Holistic approach Today,
40 Riskmethods has outgrown
the start-up label. The company was founded in 2013, a time when computa- tional power was becoming more afford- able and the first artificial-intelligence applications saw the light of day. “We deployed those technologies to analyse online information sources and gener-
ate a risk score for every part of the sup- ply chain, from seaports and airports to factories and warehouses of first-tier and second-tier suppliers. Providing insight into threats enables companies to make better decisions based on data rather than gut instinct,” explains Schwarz. However,
it is a fine balancing act for
the company: “If we send out too many alerts, people will eventually stop listen- ing. But if we send out too few, crucial incidents could be missed.”
In addition to the risks associated with the actual delivery of products, more and more risks are arising with regard to laws and regulations, sustainability and ethics. Schwarz points to European legislation that requires companies to report on supply chain sustainability. “But another factor is image, such as the reports about disgruntled employees at Foxconn’s iPad factories. Rather than saying that Foxconn has poor working conditions, the media will refer to it as ‘an Apple supplier’. Articles like that can influence consumer purchasing deci- sions.”
Riskmethods offers clients insight into entire sectors, such as the semiconduc- tor industry. By monitoring all the play- ers and their supply chains in that sector, the company creates more visibility of the sector dynamics and the associated strategic
risks. “Take the recent news
that car manufacturers had to shut down production lines due to a shortage of semiconductors. If you see all the sig-
Michael Huth, Fulda University of Applied Sciences: ‘We insure ourselves against all possible risks at home, but not in business.’
nals, you learn to understand how such a shortage can occur.”
Schwarz is not surprised by the BME study’s conclusion that many compa- nies lack alignment on supply chain risk management, with Procurement looking at suppliers’ financial risks and Logistics focused on transportation risks. “Every- one does some kind of risk management – often manually, or semi-automated at best – but the activities are fragmented across the various silos in the company. There’s no holistic approach. That’s only possible if we make it as easy as possible for our customers.”
Strong upswing
Prewave, Sixfold and Riskmethods all saw a strong upswing in business enquiries last year due the catalytic effect of the pandemic. “We were able to onboard most new customers onto our platform within two weeks,” states Nitschinger. “What helped was the sig- nificant overlap between customers’ sup- plier networks. A manufacturer of auto- motive components often supplies to multiple carmakers.” Everyone felt some effects of the disrup- tion caused by the pandemic in the first couple of months, and Sixfold was no exception. Many of its customers, like Thyssenkrupp, put their projects on hold to focus their full attention on dealing with the disruption. “But that turned out to be the calm before the storm. It was followed by huge growth in demand in
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