insurance

Flooding and iPhone - This Week in Supply Chain Management (36+37 / 2012)

Daniel Dumke — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:17:37 +0000

Let’s see if this new-biweekly publication pattern pays off. I think at lease the last two weeks produced some very interesting articles.

Articles

Just last week the new iPhone 5 has been announced. If you want to read a little bit more about the supply chain implications of its ultrafast global rollout, have a look at “Apple’s real iPhone 5 ace: Its supply chain” at ZDNet. (ZDNet)
Contemplating the effects of the hottest US summer in memory, The Guardian writes about the necessity to think beyond the supply chain when building a sustainable business. (Guardian)
Swiss Re claims that the losses related to floods now come close to those caused by earthquakes. “The $12 billion insured losses in Thailand really highlighted the potential for flood to cause extreme losses,” he says. “The insured losses corresponded to 1,800 percent of the country’s total annual property premium”. (Insurance Networking)

Already tweeted

René Descartes and supply chain management http://t.co/djF6UdPW
The Evolving Role of the Risk Professional: A Panel Discussion at the 2012 RIMS Canada Conference http://t.co/3M21FTtl
Hans Lessoe Shares LEGO’s Risk Management Strategy at the 2012 RIMS Canada Conference http://t.co/xvopyHO
For those who learn visually: Supply chain management infographics & more http://t.co/CdPwED1E

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Insurance Pro and Con - This Week in Supply Chain Management (25 / 2012)

Daniel Dumke — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:16:03 +0000

My hard drive just crashed. Well, one of two I use to store all a my private media. The disks were arranged as RAID 0. And the 0 already indicates that there is zero redundancy. So the data is gone.

Sure there is a backup, so nothing is really lost. Getting up and running again still will take at least until Sunday. The first thing I did was ordering a new disk on amazon. As soon as it arrives I will have to recreate my RAID and play back all of the data. A tedious and long process, since that’s something you don’t do every day…

So my lessons learnt: Never rely on a single weak link, especially if you are not at least prepared to fill the gap.

By the way. Since early 2011 I always buy the same disk by Samsung (HD204UI 2TB). And that’s the price development since then:
January, 2011: 80.39 EUR
July, 2011: 62.99 EUR
August, 2011: 60.99 EUR
June, 2012: 105.17 EUR

As you can see the price nearly doubled after the Thailand flooding. And that is nearly a year after the disruption.
But now let’s see what others did this week…

Articles

Apparently Apple is trying hard to defend its top position in supply chain rankings: AppleInsider reports that inspections have increased in number as well as in their depth. (AppleInsider)
Leaders in a new category: According to Market Watch Marsh Rick Consulting has been named best supply chain risk consulting services provider. (MarketWatch)
If you want to read more on Marsh, just have a look at yesterday’s post at Enterra Insights, where Stephen DeAngelis discusses a recent press release by Marsh and his stand on supply chain insurance and alternatives. (Enterra Insights).
The Risk Management Monitor found a video by Zurich Financial. Larry Collins explains the cost of computer hacking. (RMM)

Enjoy your weekend!

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Research - This Week in Supply Chain Management (19 / 2012)

Daniel Dumke — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:40:16 +0000

This week ended for me with a discussion of the possible congruence of research and practice and if one could really believe that “models” are even applicable to any real-life situation.

I would like the chance to stress my point of view again here:

I think in scientific research the selection of the methodology or approach is usually guided more by the needs of the research subject than by the efficiency restrictions set in practice. So of course, a scientific study may very well contain all aspects which would also be part of the same task in practice.
Let me give you an example: In one part of my dissertation thesis I analyzed the structure of the supply chain risk management processes and strategies used to reduce supply chain risks within several companies. Based on the different environments of the questioned companies, recommendations were given on the optimal design of the processes and strategies.
Models of a given system (e.g. supply chain) have to be tailored both to the system in focus and the case of application. Models are applied in a variety of industries: Banking shows some of the weaknesses of relying too much on models which are too abstract. On the other hand in logistics, production and supply chain design models are used successfully in everything from route-, shop-floor or location-planning.

Right now I am sitting on a train on my way back from Stuttgart, listening to Philip Glass. I am looking forward to two days in Berlin, visiting my former roommate.
But now, let’s have a look at what was worth reading this week.

Articles

First off, Forbes discusses the question “Can Your Business Survive the Butterfly Effect?” (Forbes)
We’re seeing a growing interest from companies who are looking for ways to leverage these technologies and the social aspects of business networks to predict supplier risk and help improve supplier performance across the n-tier supply chain.
Furthermore Tom Groenfeldt presents supply chain risks from the point of view of an insurer (Zurich Financial). (Forbes)

Hope you have a nice weekend.

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