商务风险管理指南：供应风险.pdf

7 Procurement Problems Steve is shouting at you. ‘The container is held up at Jakarta. The customs documentation has discrepancies. I need you to sort that paperwork and get my stuff over here, pronto. Bunch of amateurs.’ When he pauses for breath you tell him there’s nothing wrong with the customs documents. It’s actually a bribe they want. It’s what they term a ‘fine’. He can either disobey the Bribery Act and pay up. Or he can return the container to Brisbane and resend it with ‘perfect’ documentation (that is, the same documents). Steve starts shouting again. You look out of the window. It hasn’t been a great start to the day . Categorizing Supply Risks Raw materials and components are an essential input in any organization, accounting in some industries for up to 70 per cent of costs. And the threat of lost production, with customers fuming and orders lost, weighs heavy on the minds of CEOs. All this puts purchasing at the heart of risk management. Procurement risk can be divided into two broad categories: supplier and non-supplier . Non-supplier issues include the following: • depletion of natural resources, leading to price rises; • disruption of supply due to weather or a natural or manmade catastrophe; • price fluctuation of currencies and commodities • disruption of supply caused by political upheaval. As we’ve seen elsewhere, the business has to weigh up the probability and impact of such risks happening, and take steps. These can include amending the production process by substituting different raw materials, and avoiding long supply chains. As shown in Figure 7.1, supplier risks include: • regulatory issues, especially those affecting the organization’s reputation; • financial concerns; • quality problems; • disruption of supply caused by a supplier (an unreliable or slow supplier, or a one who goes bankrupt). These supplier risks can be managed by monitoring and auditing suppliers. But purchasing risk is