272 • Supply Chain Risk Management: An Emerging Discipline
An assessment of IBM’s current state revealed that while some risks
guidelines and processes were in place, risk assessment was largely a man-
ual, and at times overly subjective, process. What constituted high risk to
one individual or team might really be construed as medium risk to another.
Furthermore, the approach to collecting data to support risk assessments
was not especially rigorous.
e company searched the marketplace to identify commercially avail-
able solutions to evaluate suppliers in terms of nancial risk, operational
excellence, and product integrity. Aer six months the IBM team con-
cluded that no comprehensive tool was available to satisfy its requirements.
While ma ...