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Lots of heads were nodding when Cynthia Farrer kicked off her opening comment of a fireside chat during the MLC’s Rethink 2022 Summit by noting that supply chain is something that everyone in the room is dealing with and it is top of mind.

Farrer, Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Integrated Supply Chain for Allegion, was joined by Ken Engel, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain North America for Schneider Electric, USA for the chat moderated by Paul Tate, MLC’s Co-Founding Executive Editor and Senior Content Director.

Throughout the discussion, Engel and Farrer shared how they’ve adapted to challenges and where they see improvement opportunities for supply chain management. To mitigate future disruption, they shared that it is important to gain visibility throughout the supply chain and line of sight into the entire ecosystem. At Schneider, for example, they have created an upstream supplier readiness plan that Engel referred to as “a plan for every part.”

Meanwhile, for those companies with limited resources or with a significant number of parts, Farrer recommends that companies identify the most important component parts and focus on gaining visibility and redundancy for those parts.

Ultimately, to create calmer supply chains and operations, Engel emphasized the need to partner closely with suppliers and acknowledge the important role employees play. People must be empowered to be agile as they navigate personal and business disruptions, according to Engel. In fact, Schneider Electric has found that by providing digital training to its workforce, there is greater engagement and excitement around the work.

Photo by David Bohrer / National Assoc. of Manufacturers