PITCH

3rd EDITION TRACK ‘Security and sovereignty of Supply Chain and Purchasing’.

The focus of the ECW 2024 Supply Chain Track is the security of supplier relationships management (SRM). In this way, the session on 21/11 examines the different families of risks that can lead to vulnerability of the stakeholders involved in the supply chain of critical goods or services. Various forms of inter-organisational relationships seem to be of interest for the regulation of vulnerability and related risks. Total or partial dependence (mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, subcontracting, etc.), contractual arrangements and forms of network seem to have an effective impact and lead to a re-examination of the nature of the organisational environment likely to secure industrial supply chains.

From this point of view, French industry has became more fragile over the last 2 decades, to the point where it has become a fragile link in the sovereignty of the State and its territories. The current significant reindustrialisation effort is taking place in a new and highly demanding organisational context, described by the international literature with the concept of ‘hyper-competition’:

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- A competitive advantage or position that is difficult to maintain with increasingly intelligent/innovative products/services at decreasing costs, shorter delivery times and reactive global competition;

- Increasing global competition in procurement and logistics;

- Increasing unpredictability and obsolescence, driving flexibility through outsourcing and just-in-time organisation;

- Rising production standards: safety, health, environmental, technological and social.

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Against this backdrop, securing the ability to deliver goods and services necessarily requires ongoing, digitalized collaboration between the various stakeholders/functions, including Purchasing, Logistics, Production and Research and Development. The main security levers are cross-functional/collaborative and not functional/hierarchical (siloed and compartmentalised). With this in mind, the speakers on the Track ‘Purchasing and Supply Chain Security and Sovereignty: The State of the art will focus on how security should be seen as a collective value, the result of internal and external relationships and complex interfaces that are veritable management tools (HR, legal, financial, IT, etc.) for managing risks.