RISK & RESILIENCE
Ashley: Different industries have different opportunities. In automotive, the investment in tooling makes it extremely difficult or prohibitive to dual-source. It’ s also about the specialism of components. These tend to be more medium to strategic decisions around localisation of supply. But for risks and threats that emerge quickly, you just can’ t react with resourcing in discrete manufacturing environments. The most beneficial thing you can do is get information and alerts as early as possible. That’ s the biggest value in driving short-term resilience.
Q: WHAT REALLY DEFINES A STRATEGIC SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP? Martin: I sometimes wonder about the textbook answer, because there’ s a commercial relationship that can break down at points of stress. It works where the needs of both parties are equally balanced, and that’ s rarer than we think. At Aston, we either have very bespoke suppliers doing technical solutions where there’ s a symbiotic relationship or we’ re dealing with massive companies like Bosch where our volume is tiny
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