Supply Excellence — Top Sources for Supply Risk Intelligence

Top Sources for Supply Risk Intelligence

May 31st, 2007 · by Tim Minahan · No Comments · Supply Management 2.0 Forum, best practices, supply management, supply risk

The Supply Management Forum in San Jose last week was a venerable Who’s Who in high technology, with supply management executives from the world’s leading software, hardware, and media companies swapping stories and tips on global supply strategies. And that was just the audience.

Our featured panelists included Roll International Corporation Director of Strategic Sourcing Alvin Wong, who shared his group’s unique “pull-demand” approach to supply management transformation. Novation Vice President of Information Services showcased the unique challenges and strategies for managing the healthcare supply chain. (More on both those presentations later.)

San Jose also brought back A.T. Kearney Procurement Solutions Director of Knowledge Management Jane Wanklyn for an encore presentation on leading strategies for category and supply risk management. You can read more about Jane’s suggested category and risk management best practices here and here.

Jane was kind enough to provide a list of information sources to help supply managers size up category trends and assessing potential supply risks. I have taken the liberty of reprinting and augmenting the list below, adding in hyperlinks and my own favorite sourcs where appropriate:

News feeds (RSS): I use Purchasing Magazine and CNNMoney, among others.
Newsletters: I subscribe to way too many. Some of the most relevant for this audience include Purchasing’s Price and Supply Alert, which features the magazine’s proprietary reports on supply and pricing trends for core commodities and parst. How Smart People Buy and Sourcing Intelligence from GlobalCPO.com offer up best practices and one-of-a-kind interviews with hard to reach supply management executives. These newsletters are coincidentally from Doug Smock, the former Editor-in-Chief of (you guessed it) Purchasing Magazine.
Trade associations: Jane didn’t offer up recommendations here. But I often troll industry association websites for supply and pricing trends, including the Aluminum Assocation, American Hydrogen Association, American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) and the National Textile Association.
Publications and reports: Jane recommends the Economist Intelligence Unit, which offers macro-economic analysis and forecasts on more than 200 countries and eight key industries. This is a must-have for global sourcing organizations looking to captilize on emerging market supply and for hedging risks. (However, in my opinion, EIU’s technology and business process research is often light and misguided in its analysis.) Jane also endorses ISI Emerging Markets, which offers country and industry sector intelligence similar to EIU, and RGE Monitor, which provides timely news and analysis on global markets and risks. To these fee-based information services, I would add the Industry Cost Escalation (ICE) Alert, which provides predictive models on supply and pricing trends. I previewed the ICE Alert in a previous post. For free (yet not as timely) intelligence, Jane recommends the CIA World Factbook, which offers comprehensive country profiles — including geo-political risks. She also endorses Political Risk Services, which is a directory for all sources of country, commodity, and risk intelligence and consultants. It also includes useful user reviews and comments about their own experiences with these sources. I would also recommend the the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Department of Energy, which offer valuable insights into commodity and labor trends.

I suggest you bookmark these invaluable resources today. I would also encourage you to add a comment to share additional sources that you use for category and supply risk intelligence.

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