Remember the Thailand Cave stranding incident of 2018? It was such a delicate situation and the rescue operations caught the attention and admiration of people across the world. Not many may be aware that Mapping technology played a vital role in planning the rescue-
Incredible, isn't it?
I was exposed to the concept of Fully Flexible type of Supply Chain, developed by Dr. John Gattorna, during an internship at his consulting firm which I have admired ever since (Get his book here). Essentially, organizations that have developed fully flexible Supply Chains are enormously proactive and resilient in planning for and managing crisis and emergency situations.
Revisiting my Literature Review document prepared during the internship, it struck to me that Mapping played a vital role in enhancing the prowess of such organizations as well. Excerpts below-
Revilla and Saenz (2014) have studied the emergency supply chains of Cisco in-depth. The company has understood and planned for risks arising out of natural disasters and improved its resilience over time. It has learnt to integrate supply chain design and supply chain risk management, balancing proactive mitigation capabilities in order to keep the company’s supply chain as resilient, efficient and profitable as possible.
When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Cisco executives created a business continuity planning dashboard to mitigate risks. The system was reactive, however, and it could not maintain the necessary supply chain performance levels. A surge in orders of nearly $1bn worth of new equipment to replace telecommunications infrastructure was not fulfilled as company executives could not locate all its products in the supply chain or assess the financial impact of emergency sales. This led the company to introspect and make their supply chain extremely flexible in case such a crisis situation arose in the future.
As it did - the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2010 had caused economic losses to supply chains around the world to the tune of an estimated $217bn. However, Cisco responded to the developing crisis situation adroitly and suffered almost no revenue loss as a result - it took just twelve hours for Cisco’s risk managers to identify all of the suppliers in the region and to assess the impact of the disaster. Risk ratings were assigned to each node and all the available information was charted. On the same day, managers were positioned to communicate with customers and raised 118 enquiries. All in all, Cisco had identified strategic priorities, mapped the vulnerabilities of supply chain design, integrated risk awareness into the product and the value chain, monitored resiliency and kept a watch for events, all of which exhibited characteristics of a fully flexible supply chain.
I believe that if you were to browse any piece of literature on how organizations have successfully dealt with crisis, you'd be sure of finding instances of the word 'Mapping', 'Charting', or its variants.
Over time, Mapping has evolved from being just a visual tool into being a dynamic Geographic Information System to store, explore, query and visualize location-datasets. Moreover, advances in computing such as Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and Internet-of-Things can now be integrated with GIS to generate superior Location Intelligence and insights which help organizations respond to high-risk situations in a more efficient way.
ABOUT US
Intelloc Mapping Services, Kolkata | Mapmyops.com offers Mapping services that can be integrated with Operations Planning, Design and Audit workflows. These include but are not limited to Drone Services, Subsurface Mapping Services, Location Analytics & App Development, Supply Chain Services, Remote Sensing Services and Wastewater Treatment. The services can be rendered pan-India and will aid your organization to meet its stated objectives pertaining to Operational Excellence, Sustainability and Growth.
Broadly, the firm's area of expertise can be split into two categories - Geographic Mapping and Operations Mapping. The Infographic below highlights our capabilities-
Our Mapping for Operations-themed workflow demonstrations can be accessed from the firm's Website / YouTube Channel and an overview can be obtained from this brochure. Happy to address queries and respond to documented requirements. Custom Demonstration, Training & Trials are facilitated only on a paid-basis. Looking forward to being of service.
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