National Supply Chain Integrity Month: Uncovering ICT Supply Chain Impacts Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

April is National Supply Chain Integrity Month, and CISA is promoting a call to action to “Fortify The Chain”.

The impacts to ICT supply chains from the COVID-19 pandemic are continuing to be felt today. To uncover these impacts, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) Task Force conducted extensive research and obtained industry input and feedback to develop an analysis report, Building a More Resilient ICT Supply Chain: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

The Report found that the pandemic underscored the need for an approach that was already underway: diversifying supply chains to a broader array of locations and away from single source/single region suppliers.

The pandemic exposed how some manufacturing companies were unprepared because of their reliance on lean inventory models, which provide great efficiency and cost effectiveness in normal environments. The pandemic also underscored the difficulties that companies face in understanding their junior tier suppliers and where they are located. When these junior tier suppliers experience slowdowns, shutdowns, or interruptions, those risks can cascade through the entire supply chain system, making it difficult for a company to figure out where or why the delay is happening.

To help manufacturing companies increase supply chain resilience from future risks, this Report includes practical recommendations such as developing standardized approaches to map out detailed supply chains, dual-sourcing from multiple or lower-risk regions, holding buffer inventories, and more.

If you would like to learn more about making your manufacturing facility more resilient, contact your Local Solutions Consultant today to schedule a free consultation.