The urgent need to protect the global supply chain
Every day, staggering numbers of air, land and sea passengers, as well as millions of tons of cargo, move between nations. International trade and commerce has long driven the development of nations and provided unprecedented economic growth. Indeed, our future prosperity depends upon it.
At the same time, threats to trade and travel — whether from explosives hidden in a passenger’s clothing or inside a ship’s cargo, or from a natural disaster — remind us of the need for security and resilience within the global supply chain. A vulnerability or gap in any part of the world has the ability to affect the flow of goods and people thousands of miles away. For instance, just three days after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear tragedies struck Japan last March, U.S. automakers began cutting shifts and idling some plants at home. In the days that followed, they did the same at their factories in more than 10 countries around the world.
Ten years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we also continue to see the determination of individuals and groups to disrupt economies by targeting our transit and cargo systems. Understanding the seriousness of these threats underscores the need for a continued focus on protecting the global supply chain.
Just as important, we must move away from the outdated dichotomy that we have to choose between trade and travel efficiency, and trade and travel security. Security and efficiency must no longer be seen as mutually exclusive. It is possible to enhance security without increasing wait times, creating more paperwork and driving costs higher – and we are doing so already.
As I announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the United States released a National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security, the product of more than two years of collaboration across the U.S. government, and with international and domestic public and private partners.
The National Strategy, created with the input of more than 60 subject matter experts and hundreds of supply chain stakeholders, takes a whole-of-nation approach to global supply chain systems, with two explicit goals: promoting the efficient and secure movement of goods; and fostering resiliency.
We will pursue this strategy in three main ways:
Global Supply Chain Security sounds very promising but it takes time to develop and implement. I think there should be something private sector can do to help government now. Security is traditionally the integral part of supply chain risk management. In order to enhance the level of security of global supply chain, private sector should know how to identify each type of risk.
According to this paper http://www.scm-operations.com/2011/08/pr actical-supply-chain-risk-management.htm l there are some types of risks that have direct impact on global security. Human Resource risk is the first example. We should conduct HR audit at overseas facilities to ensure that suppliers and their employees don’t have any link with terrorist groups. Distribution risk should be monitored to ensure that cargoes will be transported through proper route with sound security measure. Most manufacturing companies transmit a lot of data to trading partners overseas so IT risk should be monitored to make sure that terrorist groups can’t intercept valuable data.