Use Case - Analyze What- If

Let’s use the example of a category manager who proactively wishes to track a possible disruption to their company’s supply chain due to the upcoming hurricane season and analyze the potential impact to its supplier base in Southeast United States.

In the Analyze What-If tool, the user can choose the option ADD NEW POLYGON, draw an impacted region on the global map, and then Run Analytics on the highlighted area to visualize the possible impact to its supply chain. The category manager or the risk team can then use the information to proactively strategize or work on the mitigation action plan.

Taking proactive steps or having a plan beforehand can ensure that the risk team is not caught off guard when the actual disruption happens. With appropriate communication all the stakeholders are aware of the mitigation actions and steps are required to be taken in contingency situations.

The Analyze What-If functionality can also be beneficial when the suppliers notify company proactively about a possible downtime, merger & acqusition or impact situation to their company or sites. Resilinc’s data relies on publicly available information, so the Analyze What-If tool allows users to simulate events that are not public knowledge and take action sooner.

Other options to make the analysis more relevant for the risk teams are “Search by Partner” and “Draw Circle.”

Search by Partner - The user can select the supplier’s name and choose specific sites for the supplier based on the site location or the event information available.  

Draw Circle - An alternative to drawing a polygon on the map is drawing a circle for a specific location or address that is found to be disrupted. By entering an address, the tool will use the location as a center point and users can then select the size of the impact radius.

Depending on the user selection on the What-if tool, the “Run Analytics” option will generate data in a similar format to the Warroom. Users can take the following actions:

1. Save Scenario – user can save the scenario for future reference. The scenario can be categorized by Event Type with a brief description of the event and add an Event Title for easy identification.
2. Create Event - The saved scenario can be shared with the required company users. The scenario is shared with the users similar to an event notification or WarRoom. This functionality allows users to notify key stakeholders in the organization of a possible impact to the supply chain operations. As a next step the category leads can initiate communication with their respective suppliers to confirm the impact or they can send the supplier impact confirmation request at the time of WarRoom creation. This is explained in detail under article (How to Notify suppliers using the What-If WarRoom). Depending upon the impact confirmation responses or details shared by the suppliers the risk team can plan further mitigation strategies.