COMMENTARY
I
n arguably one of the most unpredictable geopolitical climates in recent history, organizations across the U.S. military and defense industrial base recognize the urgent need to achieve both transparency and resilience in their supply chains.
With the pandemic, the chips crisis and munitions shortages serving as a few of the stark (and recent) reminders of the consequences of not acting proac- tively, there are five supply chain imperatives that should be on the radar of all contracting and acquisition professionals, as well as key supply chain and risk stakeholders like program executive office staff, counterintelligence analysts, logisticians and cybersecurity experts.
INVEST IN TOOLS AND PROCESSESS Te Government Accountability Office (GAO) cited supply chain challenges as one of the leading causes of cost increases across major defense acquisition programs and supplier disruptions among the top three factors contributing to the delay of these programs in its 2023 Annual Weapon Systems Assessment.
Te first step in regaining control and ensuring the sustainability of vendors, parts and materials across the Army’s supply chains is to identify exactly what and who make up the supply chains of individual programs. Merely mapping out first-tier vendors or doing a simple pre-acquisition scan of criminal or regu- latory risk doesn’t provide a complete or accurate picture of your risk exposure.
Instead, a deeper illumination—down to the nth-tier parts and components level for all programs—is essential to forming a better understanding of build- buy relationships and potential risks. Your supply chain solution should, where possible, be able to map your vendors back to the original manufacturer owner and map your materials back to the proverbial “hole in the ground.” It should also provide a 360-degree assessment of all risk types (not just two or three), including foreign ownership, control and influence; financial; product; cyber; environmental, social and governance; reputational, criminal and regulatory; and operational. But it shouldn’t stop there.
With new advancements in cognitive computing and generative artificial intel- ligence, your supply chain solution should also be able to provide risk-based insights and enable risk-informed decisions for your contracting and acquisition teams, program managers and the warfighter. All of these combined capabil- ities should form the basis of your supply chain risk management strategy.
BUILD IN REDUNDANCY AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCING CAPABILITIES Understanding the alternative suppliers and redundancies landscapes are your best insurance policy in a world where critical minerals are scarce, geopolit- ical tensions are rising and supplier disruptions have become the status quo. Traditionally, having one or two alternative providers would suffice. Today, you need more, especially for essential parts and programs.
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