Crossroads 2006 - Planning for Disruption

At the Crossroads of Supply Chain and Strategy:
Simulating Disruption to Business Recovery

EVENT WRAP-UP

More than 150 executives from companies nationwide attended MIT CTL’s second annual Crossroads symposium entitled “At the Crossroads of Supply Chain and Strategy: Simulating Disruption to Business Recovery."  The one-day event held on April 11, 2006 in Cambridge, MA  focused on the strategic impact of supply chains in the face of global disruptions.

The 2006 symposium featured a real-time simulation of a fictional company's supply chain being crippled by an avian flu outbreak.  The Center invited executives from several companies to participate as members of the fictional company's Corporate Emergency Response Team (CERT). 

In front of a live audience, the CERTmembers had to respond  to the unfolding emergency, which was centered around a Chinese manufacturing plant shut down after a worker is diagnosed with avian flu.  The exercise was shaped by prompts and pre-scripted news bulletins delivered by a facilitator.

This year's Crossroads symposium also featured presentations by Cath Malseed from Procter & Gamble and Edward Erickson from Cisco Systems. 

Malseed is the Director of P&G's Coffee Product Supply and was part of the team charged with getting its New Orleans facility back up and running after Hurricane Katrina.  Malseed outlined the unprecedented challenges they faced in New Orleans and shared the planning and processes it took to get P&G's New Orleans facility back in operation only three weeks after the storm. 

Erickson is the Senior Manager of Supply Chain Risk Management at Cisco Systems.  He detailed how Cisco analyzes supply chain risk and then acts to reduce supply chain vulnerability.