Supply Chain Security after 9/11 - Essay Example

Running Head: Supply Chain Security after 9/11 "Supply Chain Security after 9/11" of Institute] Tables of Content Tables of Content 2 Supply Chain Security after 9/11 3 Introduction 3 Supply Chain Management 3 Understanding Supply Chain Security 4 Changes in Supply Chain Management & Supply Chain Security on Global Basis 5 Evaluating Given Statement as an Supply Chain Manager 7 References 12 Supply Chain Security after 9/11 Introduction The following research essay will describe the concepts of supply chain security and the after effects of World Trade Center tragedy on supply chain security. It would also discuss the aspects of supply chain management security understood by a supply chain manager in an international business environment. The statement to emphasize on and to evaluate as an agreement or disagreement is: "Today, especially after the attacks of September 11, supply chain security has taken on a whole new level of meaning and immediacy. Its now a primary consideration that needs to be addressed as comprehensively as any other part of running the business. And accordingly, it needs to undergo the same rigorous economic analysis as any other ket activity (Quinn, 2002)." Supply Chain Management (Jespersen, Larsen; p5, 2005) Supply Chain Management (SCM) can be understood as the cycle of procedures which provides the evaluation of the finances flow, product flow and information flow of the materials of the company which moves in a specific process to provide information starting from the supplier to manufacturer, manufacturer to wholesaler, wholesaler to retailer, and finally from retailer to the customer. It reflects all the procedures and storage raw materials, work-in-process from the point of its origin to the point of consumption. It is very mandatory for the corporate sector and multinational organizations to reply on effective supply chain management in order to succeed and work independently in the global competitive marketplace and global networked economy. It can be illustrated in a pictorial form for the ease of the readers by the following diagram: Supply Chain Management (Cohen and Roussel; p12, 2004) Understanding Supply Chain Security As illustrated by Willis and Ortiz (p1, 2004); supply chain security is the most important aspect of the supply chain management for any corporation, no matter whether it is a small company or a large multinational organization. Basically, supply chain security refers to the significant part of the entire cycle, that is, security. When it comes to security, supply chain security covers all the efforts and procedures adapted by the company in order to improve and incorporate a better, safe and secure system for supply chain. Supply chain security also involves security adopted for a safe logistic and transport system in aspects of worlds cargo. It combines the traditional system of supply chain management and that of security in order to enjoy a better and practical approach for the trade and supply chain management of the company. The major threats and security issues faced by companies that are involved with the supply chain management vary from terrorism, stowaways, cargo vessel protection, contraband smuggling, narcotics smuggling, and, piracy attempts to cargo theft attempts (Cook et al, p503, 2004). The activities involved in any typical and traditional supply chain security system can be seen in the following order (Assaf et al, p223, 2005): Official documentation of all the participants involved in the supply chain Screening and validation process of all the contents that are supposed to be shipped Notifying, informing and announcing the list of contents being shipped to the destination country Making sure that the cargo being shipped is safe and secured by making use of authentic locks, safety code systems, and tamper-proof seals Immediate scrutiny, inspection and examination of all the contents in cargo on arrival Changes in Supply Chain Management & Supply Chain Security on Global Basis (Mentzer, p30, 2001) With the passage of time, supply chain management and supply chain security have seen various effective and ineffective changes that have mutually affected it globally. At first, globalization arrived with various changes, such as joint ventures, profilation of multinational organizations, business partnership and strategic alliances. After that, the technological innovations period arrived, which made significant proportions of success in the Information Technology sector in several companies. After that, with the advent of technology came outsourcing, which introduced the part of providing services to the customers. All these changes made important and noteworthy contributions in developing the entire cycle of supply chain management. But then, the most important aspect that affected the whole cycle and working infrastructure of supply chain management is the unfortunate increase in terrorist attacks, especially after the event of September 11 (also known as 9/11). The September 11 attacks are often related to as nine-eleven or 9/11. These attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda (as claimed by the government of United States) upon the united states on September 11, 2001. The suicide attackers hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the building of Twin Towers situated in the New York City. These attacks killed everyone on board, including those who were working inside the buildings at that time because the buildings were highly damaged by the incident and were collapsed within two hours of the attack made. The other two planes were crashed on an empty field and Pentagon respectively. The response from the government of united state was very strong and they attacked and conquered the respective homeland of attackers, that is, Afghanistan and killed many citizens there (Gard, p35, 2002). All these events have led the structure of supply chain management to face a lot of security problems while incorporating supply chain management in the organizational structure of many companies because both supply chain management and supply chain security have become highly interrelated with one another as the trade and supply chain activities have increased. Following terrorist attacks within some years, many multinational organizations have taken multiple steps with the help of third party agents or through governmental regulations in order to ensure safe and secure shipment of their supplies and goods transversely international borders. The benefits enjoyed by companies after following proper and traditional supply chain security within their organizational structure are (Peleg-Gillai et al, 2006): Customer satisfaction Efficient and enhanced supply chain management flow of procedures Higher visibility of supply chain Minimized shipping time and transit cycle Short term high security investment provides long-term cost reduction and collateral benefits Evaluating Given Statement as an Supply Chain Manager The main task of this research essay is to evaluate a given statement being a supply chain manager of an international business environment. The statement to evaluate here is: "Today, especially after the attacks of September 11, supply chain security has taken on a whole new level of meaning and immediacy. Its now a primary consideration that needs to be addressed as comprehensively as any other part of running the business. And accordingly, it needs to undergo the same rigorous economic analysis as any other ket activity (Quinn, 2002)." I, as a supply chain manager of a grand multinational company agree to some extents with the above statement, but as a whole, I would say that I disagree to the major portion of this statement. This is because of the fact, that no doubt, supply chain management and supply chain security is the essential part for any organization but the security is always there. The type of business we run in our company is of international importance and multinational companies have to ensure safe transit every time, no matter what! As far as terrorism is concerned, it is not introduced today. Terrorist attacks have been there since centuries, it is just the matter of time that people have started calling it terrorist attacks since some years ago; otherwise; individuals, groups and even governments have been involved in killing of innocent people and damaging businesses since centuries. It was terrorism when World War I was started, World War II was in progress, Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan were bombarded with atomic bombs, and many Muslim territories were seized by unwanted militants or groups. So, the answer to the question of terrorist attacks is not so new as compared to the security threats faced by multinational companies supply chain management and supply chain security systems. As explained by Walden et al (p548, 2007); as a business-oriented multinational organization, we should remain neutral for all the customer related countries and should focus more on enforcing effective and efficient security measures, because there are many other threats faced by the company besides terrorism, such as smuggling, piracy, and theft attempts. Our sole duty is to focus on the customer requirements, high quality of the products our company produce, and transferring it safely to the destination countries. If we would focus on neglecting the countries where terrorist attacks have been practiced or war is in progress, then we might face many problems, such as lose of many customers residing in those countries, and bad reputation for not acting as a neutral behavior organization. What we can do here is to hire more security staff for supply chain security. The main role of this department would be to examine and document all the contents to be shipped properly. Then to checklist the contents once again with the list provided from the customer from other country. Then they will have to ensure that shipment is safely secured with locks, security code systems or through tamper-proof seals. Then to notify the other countrys agent regarding the shipment and its content that have been shipped. Later on, the agents on the other side of the customer country could checklist the contents of the shipment as soon as it reaches to the destination. Practicing these procedures would definitely increase the security processes and would eventually decrease the security threats with respect of supply chain management. So, in order to continue operating as a successful business entity globally, we should not blame our security mismanagement as terrorist attack, and should focus more on improving security procedures so that all security threats or attacks could be made impossible for the opposite enemy entity. This would ultimately bring not only good reputation for our company, but will also increase the annual revenue generation of the company. References Birgit Dam Jespersen, Tage Skjott-Larsen; 2005, Supply Chain Management: In Theory and Practice; Published by Copenhagen Business School Press DK, p5. John T. Mentzer, 2001, Supply Chain Management, Published by Sage Publications, p30. Carolyn Gard, 2002, The Attacks on the World Trade Center: February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001; Published by The Rosen Publishing Group, p35. Barchi Peleg-Gillai, Gauri Bhat and Lesley Sept; 2006, Innovators in Supply Chain Security: Better Security Drives Business Value, July 2006, Stanford University, Available online at: http://www.nam.org/~/media/Files/s_nam/docs/237300/237208.pdf.ashx M L Walden, Peg Thoms, Inc NetLibrary; 2007, Battleground: Business, Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, p548. Shoshanah Cohen, Joseph Roussel; 2004, Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Disciplines for Top Performance, Published by McGraw-Hill Professional, p12. Henry H. Willis, David Santana Ortiz; 2004, Evaluating the Security of the Global Containerized Supply Chain, Published by Rand Corporation, p1. Thomas A. Cook, Rennie Alston, Kelly Raia; 2004, Mastering Import & Export Management, Published by AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, p503. Michael Assaf, Cynthia Bonincontro, Stephen Johnsen; 2005, Global Sourcing & Purchasing Post 9/11: New Logistics Compliance Requirements and Best Practices; Published by J. Ross Publishing, p223. Read More