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From left: Jeff Waller, the founder of Waller Consulting; Doug Cantriel, head of North American transportation at Ford Motor Co.; and Al Richey, supply chain consultant for Waller Consulting. (Connor D. Wolf/Transport Topics)

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OXON HILL, Md. — Supply chain companies need to develop risk mitigation plans that leverage insights and technologies, according to a panel of experts.

The hosted the panel discussion as part of its , held Oct. 5-8. The conference brought together supply chain experts from across the economic landscape.

“Risk is inherent to everything that we do,” said Jeff Waller, the founder of Waller Consulting. “The only way to eliminate risk is to eliminate the situation. The only way to eliminate the risk of falling down stairs is to take out the stairs. But there are risk mitigation strategies that you can employ to mitigate the risk of falling down the stairs.”

Accepting this allows for realistic expectations and the formation of a workable plan, he noted.

“The supply chain touches virtually everything,” Waller said. “There’s the operational risks [and] compliance risks, and these are global. The next step — after you identify your risks — is assessing them. You assess them two ways: You look at the likelihood that they’re going to happen, which is completely independent of the impact that [they’re] going to have to your organization.”

Waller stressed that while environmental, financial, trade, cybersecurity and even pandemic-related risks confront companies, data can be used to develop a mitigation plan and prioritize around both the severity and likelihood of the risks. From there, he said, options exist to protect against them.

“Every accounting firm out there — the big five accounting firms — they sell all kinds of services ... around coming into your operation, assessing the likelihood and impact of the risks,” he said.

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Assessing risk inherent in different processes is essential for all supply chain companies, said Jeff Waller, the founder of Waller Consulting. (Kindamorphic/Getty Images)

But that can get expensive.

“Before you write that seven-figure check to the accounting firm, talk to your maintenance lead, talk to your team leads,” said Al Richey, supply chain consultant for Waller Consulting. “Talk to your people on the floor and ask them, ‘What keeps you up at night?’ It’s just astounding the amount of data that you gather from the people that are actually touching the product, as opposed to somebody sitting in an office.”

Waller agreed.

“Think of the most critical process in your supply chain, whether it be distribution operations, transportation, overseas manufacturing or whatever it is in your supply chain,” he said. “Pick one area and put together a group of people that actually work in that area, identify the processes that are at risk in that area, and put together a risk matrix. It’s a fantastic discussion to have, especially with people that are knee-deep in it every day.”

There also are emerging technologies around artificial intelligence that could help companies gain better visibility into their data and operations.

“We partner with Project44, who has great visibility — they’re giving us AI-leading information,” said Doug Cantriel, head of North American transportation at Ford Motor Co. “That information now is becoming available to us, like it’s never happened before. Having that information allows us to see it, react on it — not waiting 45 days to be impacted. We’re trying to make changes around that. I think you also have to think about the risk mitigation as a resiliency, because once something fails, you’re going to pay an exponential factor to that.”

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