Supply Chain Risk Management: the Feds are moving in the right direction.

A competent logistician takes a holistic, not a transactional, view of Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM).  Congress is moving the Department of Defense in that direction.  And that means if you do business with the federal government, get ready to answer the mail.

Supply Chain Risk Management rides on four vectors.  There are strategic risks we logisticians worry about, like foreign market fluctuations or economic dislocations.  There are operational risks, like diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS).  There are physical risks, like the driver shortage, port closures, or weather disruptions.  There are financial risks, like currency fluctuations or price volatility.

President Trump signed the annual defense budget – the “John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019” – on August 13.  It is over a thousand pages long.  Buried in the bill (Section 881) is a definition of Supply Chain Risk for the Department of Defense.

That section says, “The term ‘supply chain risk’ means the risk that an adversary may sabotage, maliciously introduce unwanted function, or otherwise subvert the design, integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation, or maintenance of a covered system so as to surveil, deny, disrupt, or otherwise degrade the function, use, or operation of such system.”

Congress deserves credit for recognizing supply chain risk as an issue.  That said, what about supply chain risk unrelated to an adversary?  Not all national security threats involve an adversary.  The military definition of national security includes “defense posture capable of successfully resisting hostile or destructive action from within or without, overt or covert.”  What about supply chain risk outside of Defense?  There are some pretty complex supply chains run by the government unrelated to the military; just take a look at the State Department, for example.

Supply Chain Risk Management in a government context isn’t just about adversaries, and it isn’t just about war.  The four vectors of risk – strategic, operational, physical, and financial - are all around us.  While it’s good that Congress is taking notice of supply chain risk, it’s clear they are lawyers focused on transactions, not logisticians managing systems.

Congress deserves credit for what they have done, but they haven’t gone far enough in considering the breadth of supply chain risk.  While it is important that DoD embraces SCRM, like the private sector, SCRM should be a “Whole of Government” evolution, not just DoD. 

Things are moving in the right direction, but there is more work to be done.

With uncertainty growing and labor markets tight, think about a different kind of hire.

The “trade war” talk makes logisticians nervous.  Supply chains can be brittle, and battles – even metaphorical battles – introduce uncertainty.  And with the rhetoric currently flying across the Pacific, uncertainty is certainly getting our attention

You can find candidates trained for this kind of uncertainty.  They come from top schools that graduate global logisticians – often with Masters Degrees – and you might want to think about looking for them as they consider leaving government service: 

• The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, commonly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF)
• The Naval Postgraduate School, commonly referred to as Monterrey
• The Joint Forces Staff College
• The National War College
• For less senior but well-grounded hires, look at graduates from any one of the service academies: The United States Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, or ROTC Programs

Graduates of these schools bring the skills needed to deal with physical conflict and the ensuing uncertainty in the supply chain, not just the metaphorical.  The other thing they bring is leadership skills and operational savviness honed in challenging and diverse conditions, often in complex, chaotic, and austere situations.

There are also solid ROTC programs that develop entry level leaders on campuses across the country.  And let’s not forget the non-commissioned officer pools, who often earn degrees while wearing the uniform.  The point is that if you are looking for leaders in logistics; don’t just think of the traditional college campus. 

Leaders in the military – both uniformed and civilian - know how to make things happen.  Often, they learned how to make things happen when the bullets are flying.  Literally.

They can handle a trade war.